Saudi Arabia engineering community — the foundation of a tech ecosystem
By @Doron Peskin and @Ofer Shoshan
The Saudi Council of Engineers recently reported that in 2020 there was an impressive increase in the number of Saudi engineers registrations. A total of 11,536 engineers, 2,760 students, 1,278 technicians, 840 specialists were registered last year.
Thus, according to the council, the number of registered Saudi engineers reached 42,811 and the number of Saudi experts reached 1,470.
The council added that the number of its Saudi members exceeds 50,000. Which makes 15 engineers per 10,000, or 0.15% of the population, whereas in the US there are 4.54m engineers, i.e. 138 engineers per 10,000 people, or 1.4% of the population.
The number of engineering firms in Saudi Arabia reaches about 2,700 engineering firms while the number of engineering firms reaches about 300.
The council has announced that it will focus this year on strengthening the intellectual property rights of engineers, ministries and engineering companies, by coordinating the issue with the Saudi Intellectual Property Authority, which aims to raise the level of the engineering industry in the kingdom.
Clearly with more engineers, Saudi Arabia is strengthening its future potential in technology in general. Investing in education and increasing the numbers of engineers as part of Vision 2030 will let Saudi Arabia expand to fields other than oil.
