On March 10th, Saudi Arabia’s Cabinet headed by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and the Prime Minister, His Royal Highness Prince Muhammad bin Salman, approved the establishment and launch of the ‘Digital Government Authority’ (DGA).
DGA will be tasked with:
- Preparing the national eGovernment strategy
- Overseeing digital government platforms, websites, services and networks
- Establishing technical standards for government digital transformation models
- Regulating Saudi Arabia’s government cloud
The Kingdom has long acknowledged the central role ICT plays in any government’s success. Over the last couple of years, it has invested in programs such as Yesser (to operate and advise public sector digital services) and Saudi’s government cloud, Deem, which provides various cloud services to public sector entities and aims to enhance government performance, boost e-service provision, reduce digital infrastructure costs, and ensure high information security standards.
To that regard, the launch of the DGA is expected to further accelerate digital transformation and the provision of e-government services in the Kingdom. Given the importance of procurement policies and functions within the digital transformation journey of any government, it is expected that the establishment of DGA will further drive regulatory developments in the Kingdom. However, it remains unclear how the DGA will interact with other government authorities, including the Saudi Data and AI Authority and its three sub agencies, particularly the National Information Centre.
About Access Partnership
Access Partnership is closely monitoring all developments regarding the establishment of the Digital Government Authority. For more information regarding this matter or to get involved in the consultation, please contact Nada Ihab or Hussein Abul-Enein.
