Kuwait has made great strides towards digital transformation, a main pillar of its 2035 development vision, said Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Affairs Mazen Al-Nahedh on Sunday.

Speaking at the Ninth e-Government Forum launched with the participation of several government and private agencies, Al-Nahedh, also minister of commerce and industry, said that development and digital transformation are closely linked. There is no sustainable development without smart digital transformation, he affirmed.

He argued that that digital transformation of government transactions save a lot of time, effort and money to the country." We see that technology should be used to boost transparency and limit human intervention in government transactions in a way that enhances anti-corruption efforts", he said.He stressed the importance of having highly-qualified Kuwaiti cadres in information technology to help materialize the digital transformation goals.

Meanwhile, Haya Alwadani, Director General of Kuwait's Central Agency for Information Technology (CAIT), said during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic Kuwait took great steps towards digital transformation in government transactions to overcome the challenge of lockdowns.During this period, the CAIT launched "Sahel App" which is a unified platform for electronic services of various government agencies, she pointed out, adding that it sharply cut paper work and gave an added-value to the national economy. — KUNA