99% maturity in electronic and mobile government services, securing regional leadership for the fourth consecutive time

Riyadh | BETH

Saudi Arabia has maintained first place in the Middle East and North Africa in the 2025 Government Electronic and Mobile Services Maturity Index, issued by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

The Kingdom achieved an overall maturity score of 99%, retaining the regional lead for the fourth consecutive time.

The index covered 17 countries and assessed the maturity of 100 priority government services provided to individuals and businesses through digital platforms and smart applications.

Saudi Arabia achieved:

• 100% in service availability and sophistication.
• 99% in service use and user satisfaction.
• 100% in public outreach.

The result reflects continuing improvements in digital services across the civil, judicial, healthcare, and customs sectors. It also demonstrates greater integration among government platforms, expanded use of data and artificial intelligence, improved accessibility for persons with disabilities, and stronger security across digital access channels.

The achievement follows Saudi Arabia’s second-place global ranking in the World Bank’s 2025 GovTech Maturity Index, which assessed 197 economies, as well as the selection of Riyadh to host the Global Center for Digital Government in partnership with the United Nations.

Analysis

From Digitizing Transactions to Rebuilding Government

The significance of the result does not lie merely in moving paper-based procedures onto screens. It reflects a broader transition from digitizing individual services to building an interconnected government centered on users’ needs.

The first phase of electronic government moved transactions from public offices to digital platforms. The more advanced phase connects data, agencies, and procedures to reduce the number of steps, save time, and deliver services before users are required to request them.

This is the difference between having government applications and achieving genuine digital-government maturity.

What Does 99% Mean?

The score indicates that priority services have reached an almost complete level of availability, sophistication, and accessibility, while their use has achieved a high degree of user satisfaction.

The distinction worth noting is the small gap between 100% service availability and the 99% score for use and satisfaction.

Although marginal, this gap shows that the next stage is not primarily about increasing the number of services. It is about improving the experience: simplifying language, reducing repeated requests for information, accelerating responses, increasing platform reliability, and addressing exceptional cases that still require human intervention.

The more difficult test begins after digital availability is complete: do users genuinely feel that dealing with government has become easier?

Economic Value, Not Merely Better Services

Digital government is not simply a technology project designed to serve individuals. It forms part of the economy’s essential infrastructure.

Every procedure completed more quickly by an investor or business reduces the cost of doing business. Every integration between government entities saves time and reduces duplication and uncertainty. Every reliable remote service expands the ability of companies and individuals to operate from anywhere.

Digital-government maturity is therefore directly connected to economic competitiveness, investment attractiveness, and labor-market efficiency.

A state that saves time for its citizens and businesses also reduces costs across its economy.

Riyadh as a Global Center

The selection of Riyadh to host the Global Center for Digital Government moves Saudi Arabia from being a country developing its own experience to one that participates in building international knowledge and standards.

The opportunity extends beyond hosting a center. Saudi expertise could become an exportable product through consulting, platforms, technology, and training programs—particularly for countries developing their own digital-government systems.

Conclusion

Saudi Arabia’s leadership for the fourth consecutive time shows that digital transformation is no longer a temporary achievement. It has become a sustainable institutional capability.

Maintaining this position, however, will require moving into the next generation of digital government: proactive services, trustworthy artificial intelligence, interconnected data, and a user experience in which the public no longer feels the boundaries between government entities.

In short, a mature digital government is not one that places all its services on a screen. It is one that reduces the need for people to search for those services in the first place.