THE Digital Egypt platform that President Abdel Fattah El Sisi launched earlier this month points to the peaking of national efforts to achieve digital transformation as part of the drive to establish Egypt as a modern state and also in line with Egypt’s Vision 2030, the document that provides the frameworks for realising comprehensive and sustainable development across the entire land of the country. Aimed at providing citizens with digitised or digitally-supported services, the platform enables citizens to access more than 130 government services in addition to networking a large number of government buildings nationwide; thereby contributing to the delivery of fast and smooth services to citizens. The platform is one of the key technology infrastructure projects that have been planned to function as the core component of the state’s drive to promote digital transformation and invest the process in building Digital Egypt as part of the national strategy for achieving the modernisation of all sectors of the state.
Based upon this orientation, the state has placed manifest emphasis on implementing and expanding technology infrastructure projects nationwide in order to promote digital transformation the advantages of which include in the foremost modernising the services extended to the public and making it possible for citizens to get fast, smooth and easy access to these services. So far, technology and digital transformation projects have covered vital areas and services in several sectors including those of health, education, agriculture, litigation procedures, public notary, remote tourism and administrative measures. In perspective, improving service user experience is one of digital transformation’s key targets that also include the updating of operational processes and the building of advanced business and production models that benefit from digital technology.
Simultaneously with elevating the quality of public services, digital transformation serves as driver of innovation given that the process relies considerably on building and nourishing the individual and industry capabilities to find solutions to output and production issues – a challenge which demands digital practitioners and developers to keep devising digital solutions. In practice, it simply means seeking to crystalise, identify and forward innovative solutions and production models. And the larger the base of digital practitioners is, the more will it be possible to spread innovativeness which is admittedly an essential aspect of the modernisation of industries, businesses and almost all other forms of contemporary socio-economic activities.
And it is exactly this consideration that makes encouraging young people to engage in digital businesses, including through launching their own startups, a primal factor in achieving overall digital transformation. In this direction, the state has consistently provided support to startups as so was reflected in the recent presidential directives to allow the establishment of such startups just by online notification. Of direct relevance to this move has been the CIT ministry’s plans to elevate young people’s digital skills through qualification and training. These plans have reached out to school and university students, graduates, professionals, women, and Persons of Determination, in effect diversifying the base of digital literacy and boosting the potential of the country’s human resources to contribute to the achievement of digital transformation.
