Acknowledging the Saudi capital city’s prominent role in adopting and promoting the use of digital technologies to enhance socioeconomic development, the 23rd session of the Council of Arab Ministers of Communications and Information Technology last week decided to declare Riyadh the Arab world’s first digital capital city.

Commenting on the decision, Saud Al-Sabhan, the Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology’s director general of corporate communications told Arab News: “I am not exaggerating when I say you can do anything with a mobile app in Saudi Arabia.”

Al-Sabhan has been the director general of corporate communications at the ministry since February 2019.

 Before joining the ministry, he worked at Riyadh Airports Co. (RAC) as vice president (commercial) and marketing director. 

RAC is responsible for the management, operations and maintenance of the King Khaled International Airport and its facilities.

 Al-Sabhan obtained a bachelor's degree in marketing at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in 2002. He did an MBA in management and finance from Seattle University in 2008.

Al-Sabhan also received a diploma in entrepreneurship at the University of Washington in 2006.

 He started his career as a marketing professional in Saudi Arabia and worked with some top names in the private sector like NCB, Danone, Nadec and Mobily. He joined the National Water Co. as a senior marketing and research manager in 2011. In 2015, he joined the Saudi Industrial Property Authority (Modon) as head of marketing. Later, he joined the Saudi Industrial Development Fund as a marketing director in 2016.