Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Finance launches 12 new services on its Etimad platform

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Finance (MOF) launched 12 new products on its digital Etimad platform Tuesday aimed at a variety of economic segments.

Etimad, launched in 2018, is a unified digital services platform that serves to enhance the Kingdom’s digitization efforts and offer services to both government and private sector entities.

In a statement regarding the launch of the new products, Ahmad Alsuwaiyan, Deputy Minister of Technology and Development at MOF said that the ministry has placed digital transformation plans within government at the heart of its plans, in line with Vision 2030.

“It has also empowered Government entities to manage resources effectively and efficiently, and strengthened partnership & transparency with the private sector,” the statement read, in regard to Etimad.

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The 12 new services launched on the platform are:

1. Budget services between government entities and MOF.
2. Etimad Marketplace – allowing the open movement of transactions between the public and private sector, as well as lists of product and services at standard rates.
3. Financial claims – allowing the private sector to submit financial claims to government entities through Etimad.
4. Integration services across contracts, financial claims, and payment orders between internal government systems and Etimad.
5. Report and Indices – enabling government entities to use business intelligence abilities to obtain data and reports to help decision making.
6. Government Irkab – providing travel order management services for government employees via Etimad.
7. Inquiries regarding salaries and entitlements allowing government employees to review salary data and financial entitlements.
8. Letter of guarantee – enabling the private sector to issue bank guarantees and link them to government tenders and procurement.
9. Etimad data – supporting inquires about the financial and banking sector about data for government tenders and contracts to the private sector.
10. Deduction system – providing the option for a central deduction of entitlements and direct transfer to beneficiary entities.
11. Financing and receivables sales – enabling the private sector and SMEs to obtain funds and sell receivables from the financial and banking sector through Etimad.
12. Etimad Auction – an e-auction mechanism that will increase competitiveness and provide better management of products among beneficiaries.

The announcement of new the new services is another step taken by the Kingdom to shield its economy from the economic fallout of the coronavirus.

Authorities have already announced a wave of enormous cost-cutting programs and a tripling of value-added tax (VAT) to help counter the unprecedented economic fallout caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

In mid-May, when the announcements of costs were announced, Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said the focus was on protecting the health care and livelihoods of Saudi Arabians.

These are the priorities: The health care of people and the livelihood of people, and we want to make sure that we maintain our fiscal strength so that as the economy gets out of the lockdown, we are able to support the economy,” al-Jadaan told Bloomberg in a telephone interview.

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