Business & Money | Thursday 17 November, 2016 1:40 pm |

 International Data Corporation (IDC) today announced further details about its groundbreaking IDC Saudi Arabia Government Congress 2016, to be hosted in association with the Kingdom's e-Government Program – Yesser – on November 23 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Riyadh. The event will serve up a highly interactive platform for advising senior public sector technology heads on the next steps required as they face up to the challenges presented by the government's Vision 2030 and its plans to leverage digital transformation as a universal force for good. 

Vision 2030 calls for unprecedented improvements in operational efficiency across the government sector, with the proliferation of innovative citizen-centric services sitting at the heart of the National Transformation Program. And as the government looks to facilitate this nationwide digital transformation, IDC is forecasting annual IT spending by government departments, agencies, and city authorities across the Kingdom to reach $1.7 billion by 2020.

This intense focus on embracing the power of digital technology forms the backdrop to the IDC Saudi Arabia Government Congress 2016, and the event's high-quality, content-driven agenda will leverage IDC Government Insights' extensive end-user research on the subject. This will be complemented by the thoughts of widely respected public sector experts on emerging issues such as the implementation of smart cards and smart crowd management, the need to improve infrastructure resiliency, and the quest to redefine the urban citizen experience.

"IDC encourages public sector entities to focus on improving the overall citizen experience by leveraging data from multiple sources and making public systems much more accessible," says Massimiliano Claps, IDC's Associate Vice President for Government Insights, EMEA. "This will require solutions that enable the cross-silo interoperability of data and processes through common platforms. Indeed, as the digital transformation ambitions of Vision 2030 begin to take shape, government organizations must embrace a new era of unfettered collaboration across their hierarchical structures. Only then will we start to see the levels of innovation required to develop a truly vibrant society and thriving digital economy." 

Among the luminaries speaking at the event will be Eng. Ali Bin Saleh Al-Soma, Secretary General of Saudi Arabia's National CIT Plan and Advisor to the Minister of Communications and IT; Mr. Basem Al Shafi, Deputy Minister of Business Technology and Vision 2030 Supervisor; and Dr. Ayad Aldaijy, CIO at the Ministry of Environment Water and Agriculture. They will be joined by Eng. Abdulaziz AlOraij, CIO at the Ministry of Housing; Mr. Hisham Hammami, CIO at the Ministry of Hajj; and Eng. Sultan D. Abukoshaim, CIO and Advisor to the Governor at the Saudi Standards, Quality and Metrology Organization (SASO).

Targeted exclusively at C-level executives and above, the event will combine thought-provoking presentations with interactive workshops, panel discussions, and case studies, whilst facilitating one-to-one meetings between the providers of cutting-edge tech solutions and the influential IT decision makers responsible for driving their implementation. Senior representatives from Yesser will also be on hand to provide the inside track on developments taking place across the Kingdom's e-Government landscape.

"Private businesses, working in partnership with the public sector, have a key role to play in facilitating e-Government transformation across the Kingdom," says Eng. Abdulaziz A. Alshouiby, Yesser's Director General. "In-depth research and specialized studies from private sector organizations will shape expectations for government CIOs around issues such as digital transformation and its impact on decision-making transparency. The implementation of Saudi Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Program will effectively lead a technological march across Saudi Arabia, and pioneering events such as the IDC Saudi Arabia Government Congress 2016 offer an ideal opportunity to foster a new era of cooperation between stakeholders from both the public and private sectors."

Joining Yesser will be a host of leading technology vendors, including Hewlett Packard Enterprise (Premium Partner), Nokia (Focus Group and Workshop Partner), Dell EMC and Lenovo (Focus Group Partners), Palo Alto (Workshop Partner), and Barracuda (Exhibit Partner). For more information about the IDC Saudi Arabia Government Congress 2016 or to learn about the range of flexible partnership opportunities on offer, please contact Ms. Ronita Bhattacharjee, associate vice president for conferences at IDC Middle East and Africa, on +971 4 391 2747 or at rbhattacharjee@idc.com. Alternatively, you may visit the dedicated IDC Saudi Arabia Government Congress 2016 website here. You can tweet about the events using the hashtag #IDCSAUDIGOVT.