Quality of Life Program Defines Saudi Cities’ Transformation

Saudi Arabia’s Quality of Life Program is maintaining the continuous transformation of its cities. Under the program, the Saudi government upgrades the quality of services it offers to improve people’s daily living.

To boost the quality of life, Saudi authorities crafted projects to increase public spaces per person living in each city. For instance, in some municipalities, it was able to increase the per capita rate by 6.16 square meters, going beyond the aim of 4.65 square meters.

More green spaces

In addition, the Quality of Life program also increased the space allotted for greenery in cities. These include around 8,328 gardens and parks spanning an area of 161.5 million square meters. For instance, the construction of the 4.3-million square meter King Abdulaziz Park in Riyadh is already underway.

Apart from this, they also developed 222.9 million square meters of green spaces and planted over 24 million trees.  This is in line with the Green Suburbs Project, a Quality of Life Program and the Ministry of Municipalities project. Their collective ambition is to plant more than 1.2 million trees over 50 housing projects throughout the country.

Saudi authorities also developed 257 cultural centers, 649 squares, and a total of 4,449 parking spaces. Moving on to spaces particularly for children, the Saudi government reached a total of 5,515 playgrounds.

Increased road networks and improved digital services

Main thoroughfares, meanwhile, also experienced improvements. The Quality of Life Program extended the road network by approximately 2,500 kilometers and put up 146,000 new light poles. They also built seven new bridges, in addition to existing 498 bridges. This brings the new total to 505 bridges.

On top of this, Saudi authorities also constructed an additional tunnel, coming up with the new total of 155 tunnels. To add, the government also built six pedestrian bridges.

Saudis also benefit from the Quality of Life program through its enhanced digital services. For instance, those seeking licenses can obtain one from the digital municipal advisor platform for commercial licensing. In fact, in 2023 alone, the Saudi government issued and renewed a total of 696,457 licenses. This translates to a 35.7 percent increase in new licenses and a 50 percent increase in renewed licenses.

High score for the Quality of Life Program

Overall, the Ministry of Municipalities achieved a score of 88.64 percent in the assessment of the government’s digital transformation efforts. As further proof of its success, their Balady and Sakani Metaverse applications won the Middle East Excellence Award for Technology and the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Excellence Award.

The Balady app allows Saudis to avail of different services. For example, with it, they can submit requests for health certificates, set appointments with secretariats, or file reports of visual distortion, a symptom caused by an underlying ophthalmological problem.

The Quality of Life Program underscores Saudi Arabia’s overarching goal of creating a more livable and vibrant society.

Photo by ekrem osmanoglu on Unsplash