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Investment
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and emergency and high dependency units, the Medical City has
almost 1,100 beds. It is made up of four specialist hospitals and
33 outpatient and support clinics. There is a 246-bed paediatric
hospital and a 236-bed gynaecology and obstetrics unit as well as
an 159-bed medical rehabilitation center and a 459-bed general
hospital. The clinics include centers for heart, neuroscience,
haematology and oncology, along with diabetes and physiology.
The entire facility is designed to treat every year 50,000 patients
in-house and two million outpatients.
Among the other government run hospitals are university
teaching hospitals, including the King Faisal Specialist and
Research Hospital and the King Khaled Eye Hospital. There are
also facilities dedicated to members of the armed forces and the
National Guard and schools healthcare. Strategically located
around the capital there are some 435 medical centers as well as
no less than eleven anti-smoking clinics.
On top of this the private sector runs 30 hospitals in the
capital, providing a total of more than 3,600 beds. There are
also over 800 private clinics and polyclinics. Ranged throughout
the city there are also many pharmacies, opticians, dentists,
diagnostic centers and physiotherapy clinics, operated by both
the state and private sectors.
Communications and Information Technology
Internet outages and even slow connection speeds are
sufficiently infrequent in Arriyadh as to be a source of
conversation, not least on social media. Indeed, the Kingdom has
the world’s most dedicated and busy Tweeters and take up of
other social networks is hardly far behind. While older Saudis
may regard their smartphones as a business tool, used primarily
to make phone calls, for younger people the smart phone, of
which they often now have at least two, has become an important
part of their lives.
There are 4.5 million broadband users in Arriyadh, more than a
quarter of all such subscribers throughout the Kingdom. Mobile
and fixed line contracts, together with internet connectivity
are supplied by three main providers: Saudi Telecom Company
(STC), Etihad Itisalat (Mobily) Company (a Saudi-UAE Joint
Stock Company) and Zain Company (a Saudi-Kuwaiti Joint Stock
Company). The main landline telecommunications companies
STC and Atheeb Telecommunications Company. The cost of all
services has fallen because of stiff competition between players.
STC became the first to introduce 4G services in 2011 and is
now pioneering local cloud storage.
The options available to business are deepened by services
offered by niche players. Thus there are in fact 56 internet
service providers, 19 satellite communications companies, three
airline telephony business and approaching 50 vehicle-tracking
firms. The majority has chosen to base themselves in Arriyadh.
There is a steady flow of investment into fresh communications
infrastructure in the capital. Fibre-optic cabling, common in
the downtown business centers is being rolled out to ever more
of the outlying suburbs which already have high speed ADSL
copper wire connections. The networks are further stitched
together by shared or bespoke microwave or satellite links.
The apparent addiction of so many young Saudis to their smart
phones has a clear upside. There is a noticeably trend towards
work in IT and communications, including coding. While there
are already specialist colleges providing vocational training and
university faculties conducting advanced learning research, the
ADA has identified the need for a dedicated campus that will
commercialise and incubate IT start-ups by providing state-of-
the-art resources and financial incentives.
Working with the private sector and the Riyadh Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, and the ADA, King Saud University is
spearheading the development of Riyadh Techno Valley (RTV).
This mix of a university campus and an ultra-high technology
business park is going to attract technology companies,
developers, programmers and communications specialists from
both home and abroad. Attractive rents help with start-up capital
and custom-built facilities are being melded with the febrile
atmosphere of a university research. It is to be a place where
ideas are exchanged and debated and where specialist skills can be
shared on a commercial basis.
The demand for information technology expertise and the
consequent opportunities for the right foreign investors are
certain to increase as the state moves progressively toward greater
e-government. Not only are programming skills going to be in
greater demand but also project management, to cope with the
complexities of wide-ranging nationwide projects, the majority
of which will be run out of Arriyadh. The overarching aim of
this initiative is to ensure that Saudi Arabia can build a knowledge
economy, based on centers of excellence, which can challenge the
very best of other such projects elsewhere in the world.