The Kingdom is one of the region's fastest-growing countries in terms of spending on communication and information technology, a report here said. With SR27 billion spent in 2010, it is expected the number will increase annually by 11.4 percent, to SR46.3 billion by 2015, a Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) report said. The CITC report Internet Systems in the Kingdom 2011, published in Al-Madina Arabic newspaper on Tuesday, said Saudi markets witnessed a huge rise in the use of information technology during the past two decades. It added that the advantages of using information technology and communication, awareness of them and the government's initiatives since Internet services were introduced to the public by the end of the 1990s, have contributed to the achievement of stable growth rates. The report showed that the sectors leading the spending on IT are communications, finance, government, oil and gas, and individuals. The organization anticipates that individuals' share of spending will continue to grow by 10 to 16 percent annually during the next five years, which would elevate the Kingdom's regional ranking in IT expenditure as a percentage of GDP. In 2010, individuals' average annual IT spending reached SR998, a 14-percent increase over 2009, the report said. In Turkey, Egypt and Malaysia individual IT spending last year averaged SR441, SR111 and SR784, respectively. The report listed the most important IT markets in Saudi Arabia in terms of future growth; the software sector followed by services and hardware. With a 29.5-percent share of IT spending, the hardware sector recorded the highest growth rate in 2010, with expenditures totaling SR18 billion, the report said. In 2010, spending on personal computers recorded a slight rise over 2009 and represented 37 percent of hardware purchases, it added. Although the rate of Internet use in the Kingdom is still relatively low, a CITC study showed that the Internet has become part of more and more people's lives. About 96 percent of surveyed home Internet users said the content they access is an important source of information and entertainment; 90 percent said the Internet is part of their personal lives and the same percentage said Internet use among their friends and relatives is increasing substantially.
