Saudi Arabia unveils $1.1bn plan to create digital entertainment and media hub

HE Eng. Abdullah Alswaha, Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology.

Saudi Arabia has announced Ignite, a new program for digital content creation and production, backed by $1.1 billion in investment.

The program will also include new investments and support for next-generation connectivity and communications infrastructure and a new partnership that will see Trend Micro open its regional headquarters in Riyadh.

The latest round of announcements was made on day two of LEAP22, the global technology platform taking place in Riyadh.

The investment is part of Saudi Arabia’s plans to accelerate its digital ecosystem and leverage its position in the MENA region to become a leading international digital economy.

The Digital Content Council announced Ignite which aims to transform Saudi Arabia into a leading digital entertainment and media production hub.

The program aims to create a comprehensive ecosystem which will attract digital content companies and grow the local media and content creation sector, a statement said.

Ignite aims to triple Saudi Arabia’s digital content market size in gaming, audio, video and advertising. The program is backed by a $1.1 billion investment and will include incentives including financial support for local, regional and international companies and start-ups; infrastructure development; talent development programs and improved policy and regulations to enable the sector to grow rapidly.

Training courses will be available in three sectors, gaming, films and digital ads, to upskill more than 4,400 participants in the next three years.

The training programs aim to ensure that Saudi Arabia is developing the skillsets required by the industry and giving Saudi youth skills that will improve their employment opportunities.

The program will supplement the film fund which will be allocated for the infrastructure, development, production and distribution of locally produced movies, and another fund which will focus on gaming to develop games and build the required infrastructure such as game studios.

To further attract local and international partners to Ignite, Saudi Arabia will also enhance intellectual property protection measures.

The kingdom also announced the launch of WiFi 6E, supported by the largest amount of spectrum available for WiFi of any country worldwide.

Enabling this advanced connectivity is expected to quadruple WiFi’s overall contribution to Saudi Arabia’s GDP rising from $4.7 billion in 2021 to more than $18 billion by 2030.

Trend Micro also announced the opening of its regional Middle East & Africa (MEA) headquarters in Riyadh, a security data lake, and other investments in Saudi Arabia totaling over $50 million.

A security data lake is a centralised repository aimed at maintaining and managing all log or other data sources relevant to an organization’s security posture. It provides a single place for security data to be housed, parsed, searched and utilised.

The company also announced the establishment of a centre of excellence for cybersecurity expert advisory resources in the kingdom.

Source: Arabian Business