UAE & KSA Lead Digital Economy in Arab Region

The UAE and Saudi Arabia (KSA) are at the forefront of the Arab region’s digital-economy development, with both countries ranking among the five highest-performing markets in the 2026 Arab Digital Economy Index.

The UAE led the index with a score of 76.66 points, while Saudi Arabia scored 73.64 points.

Bahrain, Qatar and Oman completed the highest-performing group, with scores of 66.75, 66.66 and 65.98, respectively.

The ranking comes as Saudi Arabia continues to accelerate its digital transformation and shift toward electronic payments.

In April, the Saudi Central Bank said electronic payments accounted for 85 percent of total retail payments in 2025, up from 79 percent in 2024.

In the UAE, the digital payments and infrastructure market is projected to grow from US$21.3 billion in 2025 to US$39.2 billion in 2033, representing a compound annual growth rate of 7.9 percent, according to Metastat Insights.

Ali Mohammed Al-Khouri, chairman of the board of directors of the Arab Federation for Digital Economy and adviser to the Council of Arab Economic Unity, said that the UAE’s top ranking in the index reflects the Emirates’ “years of sustained investment in digital infrastructure, government services, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and the knowledge economy.”

Such efforts have helped establish the UAE as a “leading model for building an innovation-driven economy that translates technological advancement into higher productivity and economic value,” he said, according to state news agency WAM.

Wider regional progress

The index places Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria in a second group of countries with medium levels of performance.

A third group, comprising countries building their digital foundations, includes Lebanon, Mauritania, and Iraq, as well as Djibouti, Comoros, and Libya.

Palestine, Syria, and Sudan are also in this cohort, as are Somalia and Yemen.

The results showed stronger progress across the Arab world in digital infrastructure, government services and cybersecurity, while wider gaps remained in innovation, the data economy, research and development, and the ability to translate digital investment into productivity and economic value.

Al-Khouri said digital sovereignty was increasingly central to the future of Arab economies as data, artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, semiconductors and cybersecurity gain importance.

The Arab Digital Economy Vision, launched in Abu Dhabi in 2018 and adopted at the Arab leaders’ level in 2022, provides a regional framework for advancing digital transformation and cooperation.