Saudi Arabia ranked first in the Government Electronic and Mobile Services Maturity Index for 2023

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) released the Government Electronic and Mobile Services Maturity Index for 2023, and Saudi Arabia came at top. With a high maturity score of 93% in the overall index result, the Kingdom kept its dominance for the second year in a row.

According to Eng. Ahmed Alsuwaiyan, governor of the Digital Government Authority, the results of government agencies' efforts in digital transformation are reflected in this worldwide accomplishment.

Additionally, it is an indication of the great support Saudi Vision 2030 programmes receive from the astute leadership as they work to realise the objectives of the digital government ecosystem, which include creating a digital society and investing in new technologies to boost output, achieve efficiency, and give beneficiaries the best possible experience. 

Based on three sub-indicators, the Government Electronic and Mobile Services Maturity Index (GEMS) ranks 17 nations every year according to the maturity of 84 priority government services offered to citizens and companies through portals and smart apps. Saudi Arabia has distinguished itself impressively by winning each of them and showing significant improvement in the outcomes at the level of each indicator.

Saudi Arabia attained a noteworthy maturity rate of 98 percent in the Service Availability and Sophistication category, with a +1 percent improvement over 2022. Saudi Arabia attained a high maturity rate of 84 percent in the Service Usage and Satisfaction metric, with a +4.76% growth over 2022. 

Saudi Arabia demonstrated remarkable growth in 2022 with a rise rate of +13.52 percent, achieving 100% in the Public Outreach metric, indicating a substantial proportion of maturity.

In addition to attaining its highest-ever ranking in the E-Government Development Index since its inception more than two decades ago, Saudi Arabia recently placed third globally among 198 countries based on data from the World Bank's GOVTECH Maturity Index for 2022. 

Out of 193 cities worldwide, Riyadh came in fourth place for the very high rank categorization in terms of technology use and applications.