More than 900 representatives from 200 Saudi government agencies gathered under the sponsorship of the Saudi e-government program, Yesser, to discuss digitization and how to adapt it to benefit society in the kingdom.
Attendees reviewed features of Yesser’s developed methodology for measuring digital transformation in Saudi Arabia, which focuses on keeping pace with the kingdom’s national strategic framework Vision 2030.
Under Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia is actively working on measuring digital transformation in governance, as an effective tool to monitor the achievements of government agencies.
As the kingdom pushes for establishing an effective citizen-centered digital government, it is supporting and empowering government agencies to improve the quality of their work.
Yesser CEO Ali al-Asiri, speaking at the 9th workshop organized around the measurement of e-government transformation, stressed the developmental importance of evaluating e-government transformation.
He noted that Yesser is measuring e-government transformation to help in realizing the goals and ambitions of Vision 2030 and to make Saudi Arabia a distinctive and leading model with respect to the digitization of government work.
Asiri said that this digital transformation was only possible with strategic vision and policies, ICT infrastructure, connected society and skilled human capital.
The fundamental objective of e-government is to offer public services to citizens in an efficient, real-time, transparent, secure and cost-effective manner.
Asiri highlighted Saudi Arabia’s successful digital transformation to home-based remote work to contain COVID-19.
“We were very successful in working from home and this was possible because of ongoing digital transformation in the Kingdom as part of Vision 2030,” he said, noting that Saudi Arabia has taken great strides in its digital transformation.
Jumping nine places, Saudi Arabia ranked 43 out of 193 countries around the world in the UN’s most recent e-government development index.
Separately, the kingdom’s National Industrial Development and Logistics Program (NIDLP) signed an MoU with the Saudi Telecom Company (STC).
The MoU is in line with national efforts to encourage cooperation between the public and private sectors in the interest of achieving the goals of Vision 2030.