The Economic and Social Impact of Government Led Digitalisation

In recent years we have witnessed a seismic shift in the use of digital technologies and as a result this has brought about significant changes in the way that people live, businesses operate and regions collaborate. As a result, many countries have introduced national digital strategies.

Digital strategies allow for the stabilisation of objectives, policy priorities and outline necessary actions for the implementation of digital transformation country wide. A comprehensive digital strategy such as this can lead to significant economic benefits, including increased productivity, innovation and growth.

A prime example of this is Morocco, which launched its Digital Morocco 2030 strategy in late 2024. The adoption of such a strategy provides opportunity for growth within a global digital ecosystem as well as giving rise to substantial national economic and social benefits.

Government Digital Strategies

Mark Crowe, Associate at Okana, who has significant experience in digital strategies commented on the podcast: “I completely agree with Zineb that people and training should be a core part of any digital solution and the creation of so many new jobs and digital roles is an exciting prospect. We certainly saw how fundamentally important it is during the growth development or our own business and the UK’s role out of the original BIM Mandate, emerging  from the UK Government Construction Strategy.

“We have exceptional people across the industry, experts in so many areas and we need to bring these people with us if we want to truly effect change in the built environment. That’s one of the key reasons we focus on education at Okana.

“A national digital strategy, such as this in Morocco is a major opportunity to deliver long lasting success by investing in infrastructure on the back of the success Morrocco has had in supporting these international projects.

“Qatar saw the same on the back of the World Cup in 2022. Okana worked with Ashghal (Qatar’s Public Works Authority) on its digital strategy, introducing solutions that maximise digital opportunities by also ensuring the investment delivered a step change in how they procure, deliver and operate their infrastructure – with a digital mandate.

“Now Ashgal has a robust, data rich, process in place to manage their estate more effectively. It looks like Morocco’s Digital 2030 strategy is setting out to achieve the same results and it will be an exciting time ahead for the region.”

Jack commented: “Sports stadiums provide the foundation from which a city can build a sporting legacy, creating thousands of jobs and contributing millions to the local and national economy. However, as progressive cities focus on approaches geared towards the liveability, inclusivity and flexibility of the city, sports stadiums have increasingly become disconnected and out of touch. We now have the opportunity to change this.

“The work planned to create mega stadiums is an exciting prospect, there is opportunity to design and build sports stadiums that can offer integrated and connected placemaking anchors, anchors which activate life and vibrancy all year round. Structures that are multi purpose and socially beneficial.

“For Morocco, co hosting the World Cup 2030 means new building and infrastructure projects are needed, this in turn creates construction jobs as well as attracts tourists and companies to the host city, further increasing local spending and the generation of new jobs post construction phase.

“The Digital Morocco 2030 strategy is in a great place to support construction and tourism growth and I also agree with Zineb and Mark that this brings meaningful value to people, in terms of their own digital growth and maturity.”

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