Lebanon Digital Transformation Conference 2018 kicked off today under the High Patronage of His Excellency, The President of the Lebanese Republic, General Michel Aoun and The Minister of State for Administrative Reform, Her Excellency, Dr. Inaya Ezzeddine to present the strategy and path to transition to a digital e-government.

The conference hosted Tom Loosemore, Co-Founder of Digital Government UK. Tom led the successful implementation in digitally transforming the government. He also emphasized the role of local talent in Lebanon to achieving that.

Digital transformation in Lebanon will help save time and fight corruption in the public sector. Lebanese will no longer have to wait in long queues to complete a simple document and will no longer have to pay “extra money” to get their basic documents done. All official documents and applications will be completed from one platform and a unified user-experience.

The adoption of Lebanon Digital Transformation raises questions about cyber security including “safeguarding & securing data” and “data privacy” across systems, and devices. Especially in the absence of any current “internet laws” that are clearly set for cases around online activities, electronic communication and privacy protection.

It was just yesterday when a Former Head of ISF Anti-Cybercrime was involved in fabricating evidence against a Lebanese citizen. And couple months earlier, a government website collected sensitive data from Lebanese living abroad for the elections without any privacy protection.

It’s about time that our government takes solid steps towards digital transformation in Lebanon. It’s definitely a great initiative that will revolutionize the public sector if applied.

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