The kingdom you can do in an app: from outside the global top 50 to top 6 in seven years

The labor numbers and the capital numbers in this portal both describe transformations that are largely structural — citizens benefit from them, but mostly indirectly. The digital-government transformation is the opposite. Every Saudi who has renewed an ID card, picked up a vaccination certificate, planned an Umrah, or registered a business in the last three years has experienced this change personally and weekly. It's also the change that no other Vision 2030Vision 2030The kingdom's overarching economic and social transformation program, announced in April 2016. Built around three themes: a vibrant society, a thriving economy, an ambitious nation. Sets quantitative targets across labor, tourism, housing, healthcare, and other sectors, all benchmarked to 2030.→ Read more in the glossary chapter would have been possible without.

The starting point

In April 2017, getting an ID card renewed required visiting a Ministry of Interior office, taking a paper number, and queuing for somewhere between 90 minutes and four hours depending on the day. Starting a sole-proprietorship business required visiting the Ministry of Commerce, the Chamber of Commerce, the General Authority of Zakat and Tax, the Ministry of Labor, and the bank in sequence — about three weeks of paperwork if things went smoothly. Reading your own medical records required requesting a printout from your provider, which arrived in three to ten business days.

None of those experiences exist now. The ID renewal happens in AbsherAbsherThe kingdom's citizen-services super-app, launched in 2010 by the Ministry of Interior and steadily expanded. Hosts ~200+ government services in one interface: passport and ID services, license and vehicle registration, residency permits, civil records, and dependent management. Processed over 430 million transactions in 2024 — roughly 12 transactions per Saudi resident per year.→ Read more in the glossary in about a minute. The business registration happens through TawakkalnaTawakkalnaLaunched in 2020 by SDAIA (the Saudi Data and AI Authority) for COVID-19 contact tracing and movement permits. Evolved post-pandemic into a general-purpose citizen-services platform offering ~250 services from various government agencies through a single sign-on. One of the most-installed apps in the Saudi market.→ Read more in the glossary and Meras (the Ministry of Commerce's business-launch service) in a single sitting, typically under an hour. The medical records sit in SehhatySehhatyThe Ministry of Health's national patient-facing app. Hosts vaccination records, lab results, prescription tracking, medical appointment booking, and telemedicine consultations. Centralized what had previously been a fragmented health-records system distributed across separate provider IT systems.→ Read more in the glossary, accessible in real time. The aggregate effect is the rank change in the UN index — but the aggregate effect is also a different relationship between citizens and the state.

The three platforms that did most of the work

The transformation didn't happen through a single program. It happened through three platforms that each cover a different surface of citizen-state interaction.

Absher is the oldest. The Ministry of Interior launched it in 2010, well before Vision 2030, originally as a portal for Interior services — passports, residency, civil records, vehicle and license transactions. The 2018 mobile app and the 2020 service expansion turned it into the kingdom's most-used citizen interface. The 430-million-transactions figure for 2024 means roughly 12 transactions per Saudi resident per year run through it.

Tawakkalna is the post-pandemic platform. Launched in 2020 by SDAIA for COVID contact tracing and movement permits, it survived the pandemic and was repurposed as a general-services platform. The pandemic's forced-adoption effect — every resident installed it, every business required it, every event venue scanned it — created a captive user base that the government retained for downstream services. Today it hosts ~250 services across multiple ministries.

Sehhaty is the healthcare layer. Vaccination records, prescription tracking, lab results, telemedicine — what used to be paper or phone calls is now one app. The pandemic again drove adoption; the post-pandemic retention is what made it the de facto national health-records system.

What the rank-6 actually measures

The UN E-Government Development Index combines three sub-indices: the Online Services Index (what services are actually digital and at what quality), the Human Capital Index (the country's digital literacy and training pipeline), and the Telecommunications Infrastructure Index (broadband penetration, mobile coverage, internet speeds). The kingdom's 2024 sub-scores are: 0.985 in Online Services, 0.860 in Human Capital, 0.926 in Telecom Infrastructure. The composite score of 0.924 puts it behind Denmark, Estonia, Singapore, South Korea, and Iceland — and ahead of every G7 country, since none of the G7 made the top 6.

The cybersecurity layer behind the platforms is also globally rated. The ITU Global Cybersecurity Index places the kingdom in the “Tier 1 — Role-modelling” category, one of just 12 countries worldwide with that designation.

The pilgrimage platform

A separate but related story is NusukNusukThe unified platform for Umrah and Hajj planning, launched by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah in 2022. Consolidated what had been a fragmented multi-agency process (visa application, travel package, accommodation, transport, mosque-access permits) into a single application. By 2025, the bulk of Umrah pilgrims from outside the GCC enter the kingdom through Nusuk-issued visas.→ Read more in the glossary, the unified Umrah and Hajj platform. Until 2022, performing Umrah from outside the GCC required a visa application, separate travel-package booking, accommodation arrangements, transport, and Holy Mosque entry permits — five fragmented steps across three or four authorities. The Ministry of Hajj and UmrahMoHU — Ministry of Hajj and UmrahThe ministry responsible for managing the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages, including visa issuance, pilgrim accommodation licensing, transport coordination, and the Nusuk platform. Oversees the kingdom's role as Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques in operational terms. The 2022 launch of Nusuk and the 2023 visa-simplification reforms were the most consequential MoHU policy moves of the Vision 2030 era.→ Read more in the glossary consolidated all of it into a single application. The volume of Umrah pilgrimages rose substantially during the same window — partly because the platform made the process tractable for first-time pilgrims from outside the immediate region.