Plan of NDGS of 2021

While developing this strategy, the Digital Government authority (DGA) set its fundamental principle to become an effective and significant contribution to L1, L2 and L3 of KSA Vision 2030 Objectives. It adopts the principle of focusing, aligning and enabling activities within different digital strategies of the Kingdom, explicitky linking these goals.

The national digital government strategy includes 16 objectives, all united under 6 pillars, designed to achieve the main vision and mission.  In order to achieve these overarching aspirations, the digital government needs to work extensively under the 6 pillars, of the NDGS plan. They are: 

In addition, a total of 30 isone is  have been aligned to the strategic objectives, and each one is further leads to main KPIs for initiatives and projects. In order to implement this strategy and achieve the set objectives, 25 initiatives were designed and mapped to the defined pillars. 

Since the strategy cannot be executed in silos. a well-defined  and effective governance is needed to be developed and adopted. DGA is set in leading the implementation in partnership with sectoral regulators as well as delivery agencies in the government.

Fundamental strategic directions outline this strategy draft.

Preparing for the National Digital Government Strategy

Strategic Directions

In early 2022 there was a need to initiate a digital government strategy on the national level. Certain strategic directions were planned as a prelude to a more integral and well-defined version. These directions were adopted as a professional guidelines for establishing a digital government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. These directives were suggested and developed by the Digital Government Authority in coordination with the relevant authorities to achieve set strategic goals and aspirations of the Kingdom and become a leading digital government in the world. This objective will be achieved in two phases. The first phase aims to build the digital government of the future by accelerating its growth and enforcing governance and regulation, while the second phase aims to achieve excellence in digital government services and reach global leadership in international indicators and standings.

The Digital Government Authority (DGA) is the competent and national resource for all digital government related activities. DGA aims to regulate digital government activities in the government entities, to achieve a proactive digital government capable of providing highly efficient digital services & achieve integration amongst government entities.

There is a need is of an establishment of an ICT investment framework to test requested budgets and projects on Return on Investment and Value and the sustainability of solutions. Accordingly, an emphasis is placed on the re-use of shared resiurces and capabilities across Government with the aim to reduce redundancy of efforts. This framework will be supported by robust procurement guidelines and project review stage gates, ensuring control and ongoing learning and optimization. Its main strategic objectives are:

• Cost Optimization and Value Maximization to ensure sustainability.

• Shared Capabilities and Resources to drive down cost and overhead.

• Efficient Procurement to ensure quality, speed, and cost optimization.

Projects Examples

In addition, there is a need for increasing grants to drive innovation. This will stimulate the local market to expand their capabilities and capacity in areas where government demand can still not be met, supporting local companies to develop innovative products or services. Provision of grants will be via a competitive process to ensure maximum value for the country.

See Emerging technology projects  ,Foresight Tools  , and Regulatory sandbox  .

Digital Workforce and Local Capacity Building

This initiative aims to establish a clear roadmap for national workforce planning including a digital career framework, a gender equality program, with the task to  provide the government with diverse human resources capable to implement the Smart Government transformation. Additionally, this initiative aspires to establish a digital curriculum, serving training to all public sector and selected private sector on basic and advanced digital discipline in order to safeguard a minimum level of relevant and digital skills in all entities. Essential projects considered are the following: 

• Saudi Digital Academy: The development of the existing Academy to provide training courses for individuals engaged in transformation initiatives. Such training will focus on advanced technical skills government employees require to undertake their roles in specific transformation projects. This Academy will also include emerging technologies-related courses, such as Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Blockchain, etc.

• Curriculum Development: Work with education providers to ensure the necessary ICT skills are taught to students to advance the digital awareness of the Saudi public, which includes setting curricula for Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, and other relevant topics.

• Local Capacity Building: This initiative works to strengthen the local private sector and improve its ability to innovate, by establishing communities of preferred suppliers that receive early insight into long terms strategies and future initiatives, thus promoting innovation through competition and grants, and establishing a platform to match public sector problems with innovators.