A panel discussion was organized by the Riyadh Economic Forum to review the progress of an important study, “New Investments, Digital Transformation and the Knowledge Economy”, as part of the forum’s preparations for its tenth session.
Several government officials, academics, businessmen and women and others participated in the discussion.
The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Forum, Dr. Khalid bin Sulaiman Al-Rajhi, stressed the importance of the study at the time of progress in information and communication technology that contributed to radical changes in the investment pattern and the transformation from a traditional economy that depends on natural resources from agriculture, industry and energy to a knowledge-based economy, a digital economy, or what is sometimes called a service economy.
Al-Rajhi said the study explores future scenarios for the industrial fields related to the knowledge economy, and then reviews the technical and technological obstacles that impede this type of investment and find appropriate solutions for that.
A member of the Forum’s Board of Trustees, Dr. Nayef bin Abdul Rahman Al-Ajlan, said that the study is still in its infancy, and that this is the first meeting in which the study preparation plan, its objectives, methodology and elements are presented, noting that the goal is to identify the participants’ views and their contribution to enriching the study.
Dima Sais, head of the advisory office implementing the study, reviewed the study’s objectives, methodology, scope, elements and outputs, indicating that the study aimed mainly at studying the potential economic and social effects of the transition to a digital and knowledge economy on the national economy in the field of new investments and measuring the indicators to be adopted to achieve the digital economy.
This includes the necessary infrastructure for information and communication technology (ICT), from the physical side (equipment and tools) and the digital side (software), as well as the availability of the Internet and its ease of access at appropriate prices, analyzing studies in this aspect, identifying similarities and differences, and identifying successful international experiences and how to benefit from them.