Abdulrahman Al-Qahtani
Saudi Arabia has been working on a project to improve the lives of its citizens and residents by implementing eGovernment services, a hard work of which results have been seen during COVID-19, as most government-related inquiries have been able to operate smoothly even during the lockdown.
The objective of the project is to provide citizens, residents, and businesses with easy access to government services electronically, enabling them to carry out transactions online, including paying all types of taxes and fees, managing their licenses and registrations as well as accessing information about government programs and initiatives.
Saudi Arabia is on the verge of becoming the world's leader in digital technology. The country has made great strides in deploying emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain, Big Data, Robotics, Machine Learning, and 5G across public and private sectors. These technologies offer numerous opportunities for startups and entrepreneurs to tap into and add more value to government projects while also furthering Saudi Arabia's vision.
“Saudi Arabia is on the verge of becoming the world’s leader in digital technology. The country has made great strides in deploying emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain, Big Data, Robotics, Machine Learning, and 5G across public and private sectors”
Open Government Data, for example, is a government initiative that is grounded on Freedom of Information (FOI) Rights, where data that is produced or commissioned by government entities and made available and accessible to the public through online portals, bridging the gap between governments and citizens by promoting transparency, offering citizen participation, improving government services efficiency, and encouraging creativity and innovation.
As for startups, Open Government Data includes Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) from across the government, offering a great potential to use these APIs to build new applications and services for all Saudi citizens, residents, and businesses.
Of course, this doesn't come without challenges; it means that Saudi Arabia could face cybersecurity challenges, especially considering the ever-growing cyberattacks on governmental and private entities. The growing size and sophistication of these attacks make the skills gap in the IT sector a real challenge. Globally, the IT skills gap has increased by 155% in three years, which indicates that the public and private sectors need to work hand-in-hand to provide sufficient training and real job opportunities to attract the best and brightest minds.
