Saudi Arabia has become one of the countries achieving substantial progress in digital government within a relatively short period.

In 2024, the country ranked sixth in the UN E-Government Development Index, rising 25 places compared with 2022. It jumped 67 places to fourth in online public services. It also ranked seventh in e-participation, while Riyadh placed third among 193 cities worldwide.

This leap cannot be explained solely by new technologies or individual digital platforms. Saudi Arabia focused on making digital government a unified system connecting different parts of public administration. Interagency cooperation, infrastructure investment, service digitalization, modern technologies and measurement of user experience became its main components.

These indicators are closely linked: expanding online services requires infrastructure, skilled personnel and data exchange between agencies. Saudi Arabia’s progress reflects simultaneous development across these areas.

How did its digital government become a global leader? Digital Government Authority official Abdulwahab al-Baddah outlined the key factors.

Agencies began working as one system

One of the main changes in Saudi Arabia’s digital transformation was stronger cooperation among government bodies.

The Digital Government Authority works with agencies to develop digital services, establish common rules and standards and coordinate systems.

This has significant practical value for citizens. When information held by different agencies is connected, people have less need to approach several offices for one service or repeatedly submit identical information.

Interagency cooperation played an important role in turning digital transformation from a collection of separate projects into a unified institutional system.

Investment in infrastructure

However convenient digital services may be, using them requires reliable infrastructure. In recent years, Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in telecommunications networks and national digital infrastructure.

This is reflected in the UN rankings: the country climbed 53 places in the Telecommunications Infrastructure Index.

Digital infrastructure involves more than high-speed internet. It includes data storage and transmission, government registries, digital identity, interagency data exchange and the technological foundations for uninterrupted services.

By developing these components together, Saudi Arabia expanded its ability to deliver digital services at scale to millions of users.

Digitalizing the services themselves

Saudi Arabia’s largest ranking improvement was in online services.

In 2024, it rose 67 places to fourth globally in the Online Services Index. This shows that transformation went beyond building infrastructure.

Citizens and foreign residents can access many services in healthcare, transport, passport and civil affairs, courts, customs and other fields through digital platforms.

For example, healthcare access and remote appointment booking have expanded. Some judicial procedures have moved online. Several types of official documents can also be obtained or renewed digitally.

Digital customs solutions are accelerating clearance and making procedures more efficient.

The scale is illustrated by the Absher platform: nearly 48.9 million digital transactions were completed through it in June 2026 alone.

A unified digital identity

Identification systems also play an important role in making digital services widely accessible.

Absher is a major public-service platform, while Nafaz provides a unified digital identity and access to various services.

These systems simplify access: instead of completing a separate process for every government platform, a person can use one digital identity.

Services consequently become a connected ecosystem rather than a collection of separate portals.

Technology as a tool for simpler services

Saudi Arabia is placing considerable emphasis on artificial intelligence and other modern technologies in the next phase of digital government.

The main goal is faster, more effective public services, rather than technology for its own sake.

For example, automatic data exchange eliminates the need to ask citizens again for information already held by government. Process automation can reduce repetitive tasks performed by staff.

Saudi Arabia therefore sees modern technologies as the next stage of digital service development. The Digital Government Authority plans to expand the use of AI and other technologies.

Citizens evaluate public services

One of the most interesting features of the Saudi model is that putting a service online is not considered an achievement by itself.

Government bodies regularly measure user satisfaction, platform usability and the overall digital experience. The findings are used to simplify services and improve their effectiveness.

In 2024, feedback from more than 175,000 users informed assessments of 39 digital platforms. Tawakkalna scored 91.29%, and Absher scored 90.39%.

This reflects an important principle of digital government: merely having a service online is insufficient. If citizens struggle to use it, further improvement is needed.

A result more important than rankings

Saudi Arabia’s digital government rankings are directly linked to Saudi Vision 2030, launched in 2016. Digital transformation has become part of long-term plans to renew the economy and governance system.

According to UN data, the maturity of digital-government regulatory requirements reached 100% in 2024. The indicator for providing open government data to citizens and businesses also stood at 100%.

The country also rose 60 places in digital participation. This means that opportunities for citizens and businesses to interact digitally with government expanded alongside service digitalization.

Saudi Arabia’s digital government represents a change in how public services are organized.

The leap in the UN rankings is the visible expression of this process. Behind it are connected developments: agency cooperation, digital infrastructure, millions of online transactions, unified identity, new technologies and, above all, attention to users’ feedback.

The country’s next goal is not simply to rise a few more places. It is to develop services so that citizens can resolve matters quickly and easily by phone or computer, without visiting an office or submitting unnecessary documents. The system must also work reliably over the long term; only then will rankings become a result rather than a goal.

Source: egov.uz