The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, represented by a special delegation is participating in the World Summit on The Information Society forum (WSIS) 2013 in Geneva, Switzerland. The WSIS forum is organized by The

International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Ministers and high-level representatives from more than forty United Nations Member States were among the more than 1,000 attendees. As one of the key partners in this event, KSA’s delegation consists of members from a variety of national government organizations. Eng. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Darrab, Governor of the Communications and Information Technology Commission and Chairman of the National Committee for the Information Society, leads the delegation. This forum is considered a global forum that brings countries from all over the world together, to evaluate the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society and to exchange experiences and information on a wide range of main topics. Including; ICT infrastructure, capacity building, and developing confidence and security in the use of ICTs, linguistic diversity and local content. The WSIS forum also included prizes for innovative projects in the fields of communications, information technology, and government e-services. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia received two international awards from the United Nations. The Ministry of Higher Education acquired the ‘Safir program’, an e-system dedicated for young students on scholarships outside the Kingdom, and the Ministry of Education earned an award for its digital school-linking system. His Excellency, Eng. Al-Darrab responded to a question about how the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia achieves the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society related to the delivery of communications and information technology services despite its vast geographical area and the distance between cities and remote areas during the inaugural high-level session's dialogue. In response, HE stated that KSA has aimed to provide communications and information technology services to the whole population since its inception. It established the Communications and Information Technology Commission in 2001, which liberalized the telecommunications sector and stimulated competition for the rapid development of telecommunications services, improving their quality and lowering their prices. To attract investment and encourage competition and growth in the ICT sector, it used transparency and public opinion surveys. The Kingdom has been a success story in the telecom industry, with a penetration rate of 182 percent of the population, one of the highest rates in the world, and coverage of 99 percent of the Kingdom's inhabited areas. A number of service providers for fixed and mobile services, data transmission, satellites, value-added services, internet, and other services were also licensed. So far, optical fiber penetration has surpassed 120,000 kilometers. His Excellency stated that broadband penetration and Internet use had reached approximately 54 percent of the population, with yearly increase of up to 16 percent. The Kingdom will host two seminars on its progress in implementing the results of the World Summit on the Information Society over the following two days as part of the forum's agenda. The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Higher Education, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Trade and Industry, among other entities represented the National Committee for the Information Society, will participate in presenting and their digital projects and services that are consistent with the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society.​