Page 38 - SAMENA Trends - December 2020

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Tunisia’s First-Ever Open Data Hackathon Taps into Digitalization’s Potential

for Greater Development Impact

The role of government is rapidly evolving, as a team and have learned to share ideas Tunisia, a member of the multilateral
and open data has the potential to be an and efforts as team members looking for Open Government Partnership, is now
important impetus of this change. With this digital solutions to the specific problems implementing its third consecutive Open
in mind earlier this year Tunisia’s first-ever faced by citizens and civil servants.” The Government Action Plan. This will make
national open data hackathon, brought hackathon brought citizens, innovators, data available to the public in open and
together 170 participants comprising the private sector, and civil society together machine-readable format. In addition to the
38 different teams with the support of using a GovTech approach, a whole-of- National Open Data Portal, there are now
the World Bank. In preparation for the government concept, that focuses on data portals for numerous public agencies,
hackathon, transport, culture and health two core elements: putting citizens at the including the Ministry of Agriculture,
government representatives identified center of the reform process; combining Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Transport,
issues that could be solved using data and innovative public sector reforms and and Ministry of Industry. Tunisian
technology. Moez Guerfal, a hackathon the use of digital technology to promote government officials are increasingly
participant, said: “We have been working efficiency and high-quality service delivery. recognizing that enhanced data analytics
can lead to an integration of data analysis
into policymaking. This can in turn pave
the way for: improved coordination; more
informed and evidence-based decisions;
and simplified administrative procedures
and processes. More accessible
government data can allow providers to
tailor public services to citizens’ needs
, thus improving policy outcomes. Open
data can also enhance the accountability
of institutions and provide citizens with
more tools to scrutinize government.

Saudi Arabia: Establishing a Digital Hub for The MENA Region in Cooperation
with Global Partners

stc Group said that it intends to establish a stc will bring to this initiative, include its digital competitiveness during the past 30
premier digital hub for the MENA region, in extensive international submarine cable years, according to a report by the European
cooperation with regional and international network, which already offers the highest Center for Digital Competitiveness,
partners. This is expected to create an connectivity to the world for the region. which is based on the report of the World
ecosystem of advanced technology This is achieved through stc's investment Economic Forum, in line with Vision
services that will establish Saudi Arabia in a state of the art optical mesh, which 2030 which is the country's roadmap to
as a leading business hub in the region, ensures continuous service availability in becoming a hub connecting the three
and meet the expected future growth in the event of any cable outages by offering continents for multiple sectors. This world
services and investments in the ICT sector. low latency to Europe from the Red Sea, class digital ecosystem could achieve this
This will be achieved by taking advantage and from the Gulf, and by leveraging the goal and turn this vision into reality. stc
of the Kingdom's strategic location at terrestrial cross border network. stc’s Group is a primary investor partner of the
the intersection of three continents’ , and optical terrestrial network connects to all 2Africa submarine cable project, which will
promoting investment in international neighboring countries, allowing it to offer deliver very high capacity interconnectivity
connectivity services and data centers faster connectivity to customers in many between the three continents. The Group
to leverage the Group's various assets, countries than they can achieve through will land this submarine cable in the Red
services, and advanced technologies. A the submarine cables. The Group's future Sea, and will extend it into the Gulf, linking
number of next generation multi-terabit investments are expected to strengthen multiple countries. It will also will facilitate
cables are currently in the planning stages Saudi Arabia's position as the natural multi-terabit connection to the North
to meet the very high cloud and content home for the region’s digital services. The West region of Saudi Arabia, in support
demands predicted in the future, and Kingdom has an enviable combination of the Kingdom’s ambitious plans for
the first of those to come to the region of infrastructure assets today, making it Neom project, and onwards to Jordan.
will land with stc. Existing assets, which the first among G20 countries in terms of
38 DECEMBER 2020