The ‘Lebanon Digital Transformation Strategy 2020-2030’ prepared by the Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform (OMSAR), aims to streamline governmental procedures and convert them into citizen-centric digital services provided from a common digital platform. It also aims to create a transparent open government system. The strategy, whose budgeted cost totals $260 million, will enable the government to save billions of dollars. It will create a favorable business environment, and will offer local companies and workforce, especially information technology (IT) companies, plenty of opportunities.
A journey of a thousand miles
The strategy is the last in a series of strategies and plans that have been launched and updated since 1998. A tiny portion has been implemented of these plans which were updated over the years to cope new technological advancements. , Chairman of the Professional Computer Association (PCA), said: “Digital transformation projects take a lot of time. They must be done piecemeal, ministry by ministry, starting with those that are most in contact with people. This is because the government might be intimidated by a daunting budget of a single project for all ministries and departments all at once. Some ministries are big and require more time such as the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities which would take one year to be completed. Smaller ministries such as the Ministry of Culture will take a few months,” he said. The new strategy builds on previous 2018 version of a high-level digital transformation strategy published by OMSAR by adding key elements, such as an implementation plan and stakeholder participation as well as situational and sectoral analyses. Implementation of the
