Saudi-Arabien Wirtschaftshandbuch Saudi Arabia Business ... - Ghorfa

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Computernetze landesweit eingeführt. „Telework“ ist
heute in vielen Bereichen, z.B. im Gesundheitswesen,
den Medien und Verlagen, weit verbreitet. 2004 wurde
das „e-government“-Programm eingeführt. Abgesehen
von den Großunternehmen wie ARAMCO, SABIC und
SAUDIA nutzt die Mehrzahl der Firmen e-commerce
nur für wenige Operationen. Daher werden Anstrengungen
unternommen, um die aktive Wahrnehmung
der Internetmöglichkeiten innerhalb der Geschäftswelt
zu fördern.
Zwar ist die Zahl der Internetnutzer von 0,6 Millionen
(2000) auf 4,7 Millionen (2007) beträchtlich angestiegen,
gemessen an der Bevölkerung beträgt der Anteil
der registrierten Internetteilnehmer aber nur 19,5%.
Im weltweiten Vergleich ist dies noch immer ein niedriges
Niveau der Internetnutzung. Dies hängt unter anderem
mit den hohen Internetzugangskosten, der noch
niedrigen Leistungsqualität und den noch ungenügend
verbreiteten IT-Kenntnissen zusammen. Mit der fortschreitenden
wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung ist aber ein
steigender Internetbedarf zu erwarten. Der 8. Entwicklungsplan
sieht daher die Schaffung von weiteren 2,4 bis
3,4 Millionen Internet-Anschlüssen vor.
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telecommunIcAtIon
And It-SectorS
Telecommunications and information technology play an
important role in the economic and social development
of Saudi Arabia. Similar to other countries, the Kingdom
has recognised how vital this sector is for increasing
productivity, creating new jobs and achieving balanced
regional development. It is estimated that the use of these
technologies grew 9% every year in the period between
2002 and 2005.
Since the middle of the 1990s, the telecommunications
sector has developed dynamically and undergone a radical
change. The number of landline connections grew from
2.7 million (1999) to 4.5 millions (2006). In the mobile
telephone sector during the same period, registrations
grew from 0.8 million to 19.7 million. Also a number of
other services such as the Internet, prepaid card systems,
mobile connections via satellite, ISDN-connections and
ATM-services were introduced.
The Saudi Telecom Company (STC) is the main supplier
of landlines and other communication forms. In recent
years, the STC was responsible for covering the continuously
growing demand for landlines and mobile lines. In
2002 the STC also introduced a prepaid system for the
mobile network (also known as “SAWA”). There are 24
licensed providers of Internet services.
To further raise the efficiency of the communication systems,
free competition elements were introduced. At the
end of 2004, work began on liberalising the mobile telephone
network by issuing a licence to a second mobile
network provider. At the same time, step-by-step privatisation
of the STC was commenced. In 2007 the landline
telephone service market was opened to private investors.
Also, a communication and information technology authority
was created to regulate and monitor the sector.
In recent years, concerted efforts have been made in Saudi
Arabia to create the underlying legal conditions for the
broad use of communication and information technologies
in business and social circles through to the development
on an information society. This had an effect on e.g.
the introduction of legal regulations to protect property
rights, in particular with regard to the protection of software
products and computer systems. Regulations were
also drawn up to protect the communication networks
from illegal access and theft. There are also plans to introduce
services such as digital signatures and authentication
certificates (attestations). Furthermore, the SAMA
has issued regulations for Internet banking services.
On the user side, many government offices, public and
private companies have created their own homepages.
Some government institutions are also trying to offer
electronic services such as e.g. data exchange, the payment
of fees, the issue of visas and dispensing of “smart
cards”. Computers have been installed in hospitals across
the country. “Telework” is now widespread in many areas
such as e.g. the health sector, the media industry and publishing
companies. In 2004 the “e-government” program
was introduced. Apart from the large companies, such as
ARAMCO, SABIC and SAUDIA, the majority of companies
only uses e-commerce for a few operations which
is why efforts have been made to promote an awareness
of the opportunities presented by the Internet in the business
world.
Whilst the number of Internet used has grown significantly
from 0.6 million (2000) to 4.7 million (2007),
this means that only 19.5% of the population are registered
Internet participants. This figure is very low compared
to the rest of the world. One of the factors for this is
the still expensive Internet access costs, the still low per-