Voices On 2030: Digitalizing Government

Voices on 2030
Digitalizing government
KPMG International | home.kpmg/voicesondigitalgov

Voices on 2030:
Digitalizing
government
Digitalization is transforming the public sector and how
governments deliver services. But what will it look like in 2030?
To find out, we asked ‘Voices’ from around the world, across
both the public and private sectors. Their knowledge covers
many facets of government. Taken together, they create a
valuable chorus of insights and expertise.
The participating Voices in this report shared perspectives and
ideas from around the world, including Argentina, Australia,
Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Guyana,
Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong (SAR), China, Israel, India,
Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South
Africa, the UK, the US and Uruguay.
Many of the views expressed in this report may be aspirational
and personal and may not necessarily represent the
organizations of those individuals interviewed or that of KPMG.
Contents
Click on the tiles to
navigate to the sections
Predictions summary 07 Predictions for 2030 09
17
HE Ahmed
20
Andrew Dinsley
22
Ashwini Bakshi
Mohammed Head of Program, Former Managing
Alsuwaiyan Cyber Security at Director, Europe &
Governor and Board Foreign, Commonwealth Sub-Saharan Africa,
Member, Digital & Development Office Project Management
Government Authority (FCDO), Institute
UK Government
24
Daljit Rehal
26
Prof. Dr. Gerhard Hammerschmid
Chief Digital and Information Officer Professor of Public and Financial
(CDIO), HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), Management and Director, Centre for
UK Government Digital Governance, Hertie School
28
Greg Wells
31
Jayesh Ranjan
33
John Kwong
Government Chief Secretary, Head of Project
Information and Information Strategy & Governance
Digital Officer, Technology, Office, Development
New South Wales Government of Bureau, Government
(NSW) Government Telangana, India of Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region
35 38
Dr. Julia Glidden Dr. Kate Cordell
Corporate Vice President, Worldwide CEO, Chief Scientific Officer and
Public Sector, Microsoft Co-Founder, Opeeka Inc.
© 2022 Copyright owned by one or more of the KPMG International entities.

KPMG International entities provide no services to clients. All rights reserved.
40
Katrin Reinhold
43
Khoong Hock Yun
Former Director, Health and Welfare Managing Partner, Tembusu Partners
Information Systems Center, Blockchain Fund Founding Board Member,
Ministry of Social Affairs of Estonia Klaytn Foundation
46
Lawrence Eta
48
Lisa Hollins
50
Mark Paul
Chief Technology Former Director of Founder & CEO,
Officer, City of Toronto Innovation, NHSX Itheum
52
Nadhmi Al-Nasr
54
Dr. Neeraj Mittal IAS
56
Shahar Bracha
CEO, NEOM Principal Secretary of Former CEO, Israel
Information Technology, Government Information
Government of and Communications
Tamil Nadu, India Technology (ICT)
Authority
59 62
Dr. Susana Cordeiro
64
Taki Sarantakis
Stine Hegelund
Bertelsen Guerra, Sector Manager, President,
Deputy Director Institutions for Canada School of
General, Development, Inter- Public Service
Danish Business American Development
Authority Bank
66
Dr. Tanya Harrison
68 70
Dr. Thomas Zacharia Tope Ogundipe
Director of Strategic Laboratory Director, Founder and Director,
Science Initiatives, Oak Ridge National Techsocietal Consulting
Planet Labs PBC Laboratory
© 2022 Copyright owned by one or more of the KPMG International entities.

Foreword
It is less than eight years away, but expectations for 2030 are already sky
high. Across most spheres — technological, social, political, economic and
others — transformation is underway and huge goals are being set. So what
will the world look like in 2030? And what can public sector organizations do
to help ensure they can meet these expectations? This report explores the
answers to these questions and many more related to government services
in 2030.
Some transformative pressures be one of the forces that shape

are already at play. Digitalization this transformation.
is radically transforming the way
Digitalization
Yet it is difficult to plan a journey if
people interact with the world
you can’t picture the destination.
around them. Governments are
What will citizens expect from
under intense pressure to improve
service delivery to citizens —
particularly following the disruption
governments in 2030? What will
leading governments look like?
What will be the impact on service
is radically
transforming
of the COVID-19 pandemic. And
delivery, assets and systems? How
new concepts and technologies are
will policy and regulation need to
becoming enablers to deliver on
the way people

change in response? These are the
these expectations.
types of questions governments
Today, private sector players should answer if they want to
are both illustrating what will
be possible in 2030 and forcing
governments to accelerate their
transform for the future. But you
can’t answer them if you can’t
imagine the future.
interact with
response. They are showing that
digitalization can lead to enhanced
This report offers a view of 2030,
from 2030. We asked public sector
the world
around them.
growth, prosperity, social cohesion
leaders and visionaries around the
and sustainability. They are
world to describe what the world
demonstrating the transformative
might look like in 2030, how it got
power of emerging technologies
there and what the big challenges
and platforms, such as Web 3.0
were along the way.
and the metaverse. For better
or for worse, they are pushing Based on these Voices and our
the boundaries of individual data experience and insights working
ownership, blockchain and virtual with governments around the world,
engagement. Governments we have also developed our own
should be involved if they hope to predictions.
© 2022 Copyright owned by one or more of the KPMG International entities. Voices on 2030: Digitalizing government 5
Some of our collective predictions
may not come to pass, but the
trends we identify are worth noting
and following.
Ultimately, this report identifies
Thomas Beyer
five key areas of transformation for
public sector leaders:
• A new relationship: Cognitive Global Head of Digital
capabilities enable machines Transformation for Infrastructure,
to interact with humans more Government and Healthcare
seamlessly KPMG International
• The transformation journey:
Governments rethink models for
a decentralized world
• The decentralization of data: The
power shifts to the individual
• The citizen developer: Coding is
democratized
• Sustainable growth enabled:
Roni Michael
Digitalization helps achieve ESG
goals
On behalf of KPMG, we would Global Head of Innovation
like to thank all of the leaders who KPMG International
participated in the development of
this report. Your vision, passion and
ideas will be instrumental in shaping
the future to 2030.
To the reader, we hope this report
provides you with the inspiration
and ideas you need to take action
today to help deliver on the promise
of tomorrow.
Brenda Walker
Global Head of Government
KPMG International
Predictions summary
01 02 03
A new relationship: The transformation The decentralization of
Cognitive capabilities journey: Governments data: The power shifts
enable machines to rethink models for a to the individual
interact with humans decentralized world
more seamlessly
Cognitive technologies enable Web 3.0 and the metaverse have Consumers have moved quickly
natural and intuitive human forced governments to rethink to adopt the decentralized and
interactions. their role in a decentralized world. self-sovereign data aspects
of Web 3.0.
Government services are Government operating models Trust and data security have
seamless and intuitive. have become more agile, been completely redefined as
cooperative and resilient. new technologies like quantum
computing become more
accessible.
Web 3.0 has unlocked the The shift to Web 3.0 is pushing Governments have been
metaverse. transformation into new forced to adapt in response.
domains.
04
The citizen developer:
05
Sustainable growth
Coding is democratized enabled: Digitalization
helps achieve ESG goals
Low-code/no-code Progress on environmental, social

solutions and automation and governance (ESG) agendas are
tools are commonplace for accurately measured through
governments. Web 3.0 and the Internet of Things
(IoT) devices.
Citizen developers are Digital twins and virtual worlds

transforming their lives and allow people to understand the
organizations. impact of decisions.
An infusion of digital natives Government investment into

and new capabilities are new technologies and models
changing the nature of work. has sparked sustainable growth.
Predictions for 2030
The year is 2030. People and technology live in harmony. Trust is embedded
into digital infrastructure. Interactions are cognitive. And government services
are seamless, customer-centric and invisible.
In 2030, government is organized government services, but they • Sustainable growth enabled:
around the customer — designed have also enabled government Digitalization helps achieve ESG
to predict and meet their needs at surveillance. Automation has allowed goals
different stages of their lives. It is governments to pivot to customer-
innovative, resilient and responsive. centricity, but it has also disrupted Taken together, these Voices suggest
Government is an ally. It is trusted. the public sector workforce. that the interaction between public
And it is personalized. sector, private sector and citizens has
What will this mean for governments become much more collaborative,
Technological change has certainly in 2030 as they strive to meet citizen seamless and data-driven. Emerging
been a driver of transformation. In expectations? To find out, we asked technologies and new, highly
the decade leading up to 2030, there some of the world’s leading public decentralized Web 3.0 technologies,
has been a shift from Web 2.0 to and private sector thinkers to picture such as blockchains, non-fungible
Web 3.0; the maturation of artificial the world in 2030 and to explain tokens (NFTs) and smart contracts,
intelligence (AI), IoT and quantum what they see. We explored the have radically transformed the way
computing; the decentralization challenges, successes and risks citizens participate in the economy
of data and transactions; and the they faced leading up to 2030. and how government services are
widespread adoption of cognitive We asked them what ‘good’ looks delivered. The metaverse is the new
technologies that ease the human- like in 2030. And we discussed playground for the ‘creator economy’.
machine interaction, predict citizens’ the success factors that will drive
needs and wants, and respond to the most effective government Digital IDs — underpinned by
them. transformations. secure and controlled data — have
helped facilitate unprecedented
Yet technological change has This report shares their insights. personalization (and prediction) of
not been the only driver of Their view from 2030 paints a clear services. Government is effective,
transformation over the past picture of government reimagined, citizen-centric and accessible. And
decade. Many things — from social focused around five main themes: people see government as a value-
expectations and ways of working adding partner.
through to the ESG agenda and • A new relationship: Cognitive
the need for greater trust and capabilities enable machines Change is already within reach. And
security in an uncertain geopolitical to interact with humans more expectations have already changed.
environment — have been seamlessly It’s time to picture government
evolving rapidly. reimagined.
• The transformation journey:
To everything, there is a yin and Governments rethink models for
a yang. Quantum computing, for a decentralized world
example, has unleashed massive • The decentralization of data:
computing power and capabilities, The power shifts to the individual
but has also allowed hackers to
unlock traditional encryption. • The citizen developer: Coding is
Digital IDs have unlocked democratized
01 A new relationship:
Cognitive capabilities
enable machines to
interact with humans
more seamlessly
Imagine that one morning on your services that wrap around the needs
way to work you pass a small hole and expectations of the citizens.
in the bike path. “There’s a pothole
In this era, the government makes
here,” you mutter into your phone
full use of the technologies available
mic. The next day the pothole is
to them in order to deliver simple,
gone. How? Cognitive and intuitive
intuitive and cognitive solutions.
government. You told your phone
Sensor and IoT data are used to
that you saw a problem. It used
predict citizen needs; metaverse
speech-to-text technology and
service channels provide the
analytics to surmise that this was
interaction; augmented humans and
an infrastructure issue. It captured
bots deliver on the expectations.
your exact location and submitted
Government bots sense your
the information. That translated
temperament and service you
into a work order, a road crew (one
accordingly. These bots have been
human and one automated machine)
fully implemented, not only to provide
and a resolution. Simple. Intuitive.
a more accurate level of service,
Cognitive. This is the world of 2030.
but also to identify emergencies,
Government in 2030 is largely predict conflicts or mental health
Cognitive technologies enable predictive. And it feels somewhat requirements and notify the relevant
natural and intuitive human invisible. Consider this: when you functions to ensure relevant
interactions. move homes in 2030, you don’t notify treatment.
any government departments as they
Perhaps one of the most noticeable
don’t keep a record of your address
changes in the customer relationship
on file. They are not the verifier of
in 2030 is that much of it now
your personal information — you are.
happens in virtual reality. Web 3.0
When the government needs your
Government services are and the metaverse have created
address for a specified task, they ping
seamless and intuitive. spaces where many citizens now
your digital ID and it provides them
interact with government and
with your correct address.
healthcare professionals, as well as
There has been an interesting shift in private companies and communities.
the relationship between government More and more often, virtual worlds
and consumers. Citizens control the are becoming the channel of choice
Web 3.0 has unlocked the data and therefore hold the power. for both citizen-customers and
metaverse. The government’s role is to provide governments.
02 The transformation
journey: Governments
rethink models for a
decentralized world
For years, governments played many governments now actively
around the edges, making small ‘crowdsource’ code development
changes in service delivery to from citizen developers, creating
achieve incremental improvements a resilient and agile network of
in customer satisfaction. But now capabilities that drives diversity
governments have recognized that and enhances trust. In doing so,
their role in a decentralized world governments have created a more
is remarkably different from the flexible, resilient and responsive
past. And that is forcing them to platform upon which they can
rethink everything from the way deliver services.
they regulate industries through to
At the same time as having to rethink
the way they develop and deliver
Web 3.0 and the metaverse their role in a decentralized world,
services.
have forced governments government has also had to rethink
to rethink their role in a Consider how that has impacted their presence. In 2030, trillions of
decentralized world. areas like tax. Nobody wastes dollars are spent in the metaverse
time filling out complex tax forms and it is used by billions of users. In
in 2030. Instead, the government the mid-2020s, citizens discovered
subscribes to citizen and business that Web 3.0 is more secure, flexible
data feeds in order to calculate and agile — they left Web 2.0
and assess tax liabilities in real platforms in droves. Governments
Government operating models time. Now consider what that has needed to quickly develop their
have become more agile, meant for tax authority processes capabilities in the metaverse in order
cooperative and resilient. and operating models. It calls for to properly access data and act on it
a radical change from the status accordingly.
quo — one centered around the
Transformation, therefore, has taken
citizen.
many different shapes in the public
These drastic changes have required sector. It has reached into the core
governments to quickly create new fundamentals of what government
The shift to Web 3.0 is technology solutions, enabling does, how they do it and where it
pushing transformation into their operating models to become gets done.
new domains. much more agile and open. In fact,
03 The decentralization of
data: The power shifts
to the individual
Not so long ago, NFTs were They used the decentralization of
considered a novelty. By the mid- data to make their processes more
2020s, however, people had realized agile, reliable and efficient.
they could use NFTs to hold and
For citizens, the change has been
manage their own personal data.
dramatic. The shift to a Web 3.0
Smart contracts could be created to
environment has forced a change
unlock certain bits of data to certain
in the way people think about
users for very specific uses. Data
security. In the past, they relied on
started to become decentralized and
the major institutions that held data
self-sovereign.
to ensure it was properly secured.
In part, this was driven by the Now people own their personal data
introduction of Web 3.0, which, and are given a unique personal
itself, is based on very decentralized encryption tool that secures it. The
data and management architecture. ownership of every piece of data is
Web 3.0 architectures gave people documented. That means trust is no
the tools they needed to take longer a question.
ownership of their data. Security
New technologies have also forced
breaches into the big cloud data lakes
a rethink in the way security is
raised concerns about how personal
managed. Over the past decade,
Consumers have moved data was being managed. And that
quantum computing has become
quickly to adopt the catalyzed a movement of citizens and
exponentially more sophisticated
decentralized and self- businesses eager to take their data
and prices for quantum computing
sovereign data aspects back from the centralized and opaque
power have plummeted. In 2030,
of Web 3.0. data lakes they had resided in before.
any professional hacker can rent
For government, this meant a radical time on a quantum machine, which
rethink of processes, performance means that traditional approaches
and purpose. Liberated from to authentication and password
concerns about data privacy protection were quickly made
and permissions, governments redundant.
Trust and data security have started to focus on creating
been completely redefined The evolution from Web 2.0 to
innovative solutions and platforms
as new technologies like Web 3.0 was not only driven by
that responded to the demands
quantum computing become companies or governments — it
and expectations of citizens and
more accessible. was also driven by citizens’ demand
customers. Governments put
for a different way to organize
their objectives and agendas
data. And it took some time for
into decentralized autonomous
governments to understand the
organizations (DAOs) that allowed
fundamental change this would
citizens unprecedented ability to
bring. But once they did, change
monitor and contribute to progress.
Governments have been was rapid.
They opened their own data to allow
forced to adapt in response. service providers to innovate on top.
04 The citizen developer:
Coding is democratized
In 2030, when an individual is
tasked with something boring and
mundane, they are likely to just
transformation. It has given workers
the power to customize solutions
to meet their actual needs and
automate it. And it’s easy. With realities, thereby driving enhanced
low-code/no-code platforms, productivity and efficiency. It has
almost every citizen has the tools allowed organizations, both public
and capabilities they need to create and private, to become much more
or customize an app. Drag-and- agile and customer-centric.
drop user interfaces and pre-built
In the public sector, low-code/no-
components have almost eliminated
code allows employees to design,
line-by-line coding. Citizen
test and fully deliver bespoke apps in
developers are everywhere.
days. Many government employees
It started in the financial sector. use their skills to customize massive
Banks, insurers and asset managers enterprise solutions to suit their
were some of the first to solve unique needs or circumstances –
the data availability and security adding automations to enterprise
challenges using new platforms resource planning (ERP) systems
and infrastructure. That allowed in order to speed up a process, for
Low-code/no-code solutions
the leaders to embed new ways of example, or to update an accounting
and automation tools
working by allowing employees to tool to reflect a new local reporting
are commonplace for
create purpose-built applications requirement.
governments.
over top of their data. Insurance
What has been remarkable about
brokers could whip up an app
the shift to low-code/no-code
to serve a small portion of their
is its rate of adoption. As many
book of business. Retail bankers
expected, the influx of digitally
would put together a quick app to
native employees has changed the
answer a common customer query.
Citizen developers are culture and capabilities in the public
Stockbrokers would create custom
transforming their lives and sector. At first, newer generations
apps to give them unique insights
organizations. of public sector employees were
into companies and trends.
very comfortable using a wide range
The adoption of low-code/no-code of tools and solutions in their day-
has generated value in many ways. to-day jobs. But they didn’t want
It has allowed a much broader, non- to just use them — they wanted to
technical audience to start rapidly help create them, be a part of their
An infusion of digital natives building solutions. That, in turn, has evolution and guide their future use.
and new capabilities are helped reduce the skills gap that Low-code/no-code has given them
changing the nature of work. had been slowing the pace of digital the ability to do that.
05 Sustainable growth
enabled: Digitalization
helps achieve ESG goals
During the early 2020s, the development of new transit
governments around the world set systems through to the design of
some pretty lofty environmental tiny individual components. As a
goals for 2030. Then they set about result, government investments are
creating tools to help measure much more efficient, effective and
whether they were achieving them. environmentally sustainable.
Digitalization enabled them to
The collective ability to measure,
measure their progress at a very
simulate and predict environmental
granular level. Web 3.0 architecture
change has also been greatly
has allowed sensors and IoT
enhanced by the introduction of
devices to be linked together in
new sources of data. There have
unprecedented ways, providing
been heavy investments into
citizens and decision makers with
space infrastructure as a way
detailed data on their actions and
Progress on environmental, to help measure and manage
activities.
social and governance (ESG) environmental change on earth.
agendas is accurately measured Today, individuals and organizations And there’s a combination of
through Web 3.0 and the Internet get an alert if their carbon footprint different sources of data to help
of Things (IoT) devices. exceeds the limits they set for understand human impacts and
themselves. Companies can see risks in a much deeper way.
exactly where carbon emissions are
Government investment has also
being produced at every step of their
helped spawn a number of growth
supply chain. Governments are able
industries and service areas that
to track emissions by entity, location
are helping contribute to more
Digital twins and virtual worlds and time. Everyone is very clear
sustainable economic growth.
allow people to understand the about their personal and collective
Governments have helped foster
impact of decisions. progress to achieve net zero.
massive AI ecosystems and
Future planning and development invested into public sector solutions
have also become much more for the metaverse. In each case,
sustainable thanks to digitalization new industries and new innovation
and new technologies. Today, city have emerged that serve the wider
Government investment into planners and asset developers population, create new jobs, attract
new technologies and models use digital twins and virtual worlds talent from overseas and drive
has sparked sustainable growth. to simulate everything from further investment.
Start today. Be ready for tomorrow.
Based on these predictions, what tangible steps can government and public
sector organizations start taking today? Here are six ideas.
01
Start fresh with a bold, holistic vision.
The world of 2030 is not necessarily an incremental change from today. It is a new
paradigm that can require fresh thinking and bold, holistic action. Instead of starting
with the status quo, try starting with the needs of citizens. And go from there.
02
Learn about Web 3.0 technologies and trends.
Web 3.0 is very different from the internet of the past. It is founded on different
technologies and controlled in different ways. It can change the way you think about
your business or area of focus. It’s worth learning about it now.
03
Prepare your future talent and workforce models.
Think about how you are going to encourage digital natives to join and stay with
your organization. And consider how you will develop your current employees to
thrive and innovate in a Web 3.0 customer-centric world.
04
Reassess your governance models.
New governance practices are being introduced that can require significant
changes in the way regulations are created and enforced. At the same time, the
decentralization of data can require new concepts around data protection and
consumer security.
05
Picture yourself in the metaverse.
There is little doubt that the metaverse is becoming a key channel and technology
for connecting people with governments and service providers. Act now on pilot
projects to explore what your presence in a metaverse might look like and how you
could serve your customers there.
06
Form your ecosystem.
In a decentralized world, government is part of an ecosystem of players and
enablers that work together to meet the needs of citizens. Now is the time to start
forming those relationships and engaging in pilot projects to help build experience
and define new models.
In 2030, everything
has a digital twin —
buildings, systems,
even people. Building
and system digital twins
are used to improve
designs, identify
efficiencies and test
new innovations.
Khoong Hock Yun
Partner, Tembusu Blockchain Fund
In 2030, society
lives and thrives
in harmony
with the latest
technologies
and
innovations.
HE. Ahmed
Mohammed
Alsuwaiyan
Governor and Board Member,
Digital Government Authority,
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia*
*His Excellency
What does government look This has helped to create a system complexity for the beneficiary,
like in the Kingdom of Saudi of public trust in government as process design for the beneficiary
a result of secure, reliable and journey across multiple agencies,
Arabia in 2030?
high-quality digital services and and adopt a zero-touch service
Digital Government Authority (DGA) open government data, including delivery using AI to predict
was established in March 2021 as a public performance dashboard beneficiary needs and provide
the national regulator of the digital that has helped detect problems services proactively. As well as,
government in line with Vision 2030. and gradually improved the quality to enhance the government as
The aim of DGA is to regulate digital of services and the way they are a platform by providing tools for
government activities, expedite delivered. shared knowledge and experience,
digital transformation and achieve and reuse of government-held data
integration amongst government What does that mean for so that the beneficiary does not
entities to become a proactive digital citizens of the Kingdom of need to constantly provide the same
government, capable of providing Saudi Arabia? information to multiple government
highly efficient digital services. entities.
One of the main key pillars of
In 2030, the Kingdom of Saudi our National Digital Government What technologies helped
Arabia has become a pioneering Strategy (NDGS) is the satisfaction propel the Kingdom of Saudi
government for an enabled of citizens, it is critical to provide
Arabia forward on its digital
and vibrant society, placing the beneficiaries with seamless and
Kingdom among the leading impactful services. The government government journey?
digital governments globally. focuses on developing a citizen- In 2030, society lives and thrives
This was achieved by providing led and centric experience by in harmony with the latest
an integrated and interconnected understanding users’ needs, rather technologies and innovations. From
digital government ecosystem while than adopting assumptions about artificial intelligence to mixed reality,
placing beneficiaries’ needs and their needs and preferences. The new technologies are normalized,
expectations at the heart of digital provision of digital government scaled and integrated into our daily
government decision making. services has increased to reach lives. AI was a game changer in the
97 percent. The percentage of way the Kingdom creates innovative
In addition, in 2030 the government
beneficiary satisfaction with digital new services and business models.
has leveraged the power of data to
government services is expected And it has driven transformation
deliver proactive and automated
to reach 90 percent by 2025. across multiple dimensions such
services that anticipate the needs
Additionally, in 2020 the Kingdom as healthcare, financial services,
of citizens. Data is fundamental to
has jumped nine positions in the entertainment, transportation,
the delivery of public services as
United Nations E-Government energy, manufacturing and many
it informs and drives public policy.
Development Index (EGDI) revealing more.
The focus here is on improving the
a continuous rise in the rankings of
quality of data and developing a However, with new technologies
the Kingdom’s EGDI over the years.
better understanding of how data often come new risks. So, as more
can be translated into insights Government services are designed individuals put their trust into
to enhance future digital public using citizen-centric design through technologies, government stepped
services, while keeping in mind the concept of ‘life events’ to bring up to build the necessary controls
individual’s right to privacy and data together end-to-end processes and policies to protect citizens while
protection policies. and services across multiple also enabling innovation.
government entities to reduce
What do you attribute your time, we also saw strong leadership Based on your predictions for
success to? come from across ministries 2030, what advice would you
and senior officials serving the
A lot of different factors came give governments and public
Kingdom’s vision with effective
together to achieve our success in governance. sector organizations today to
2030. A sustainable vision supported best prepare themselves for
by clear objectives was launched In Digital Government Authority,
success in 2030?
for the future of the Kingdom of our strong common values around
Saudi Arabia with sustainability at participation, collaboration, We believe in starting with a clear
the heart of everything the Kingdom innovation and compliance allowed vision which is supported by all
does, from policy development us to build communities across ministers, and then engaging all
and investment to planning and the digital government ecosystem, government entities in realizing
infrastructure. bringing together government that vision. At the same time,
entities, private sector organizations governments need to build digital
On a leadership level, the and civil society while focusing skills and capabilities across the
strong leadership of HRH Prince on the intensive involvement and ecosystem, while also involving the
Mohammad Bin Salman, who engagement of the public at every private sector and civil society in the
launched Vision 2030, unlocked the step. journey.
potential of the country. At the same
Ahmed Mohammed Alsuwaiyan is the Governor and board member of Digital Government
Authority since May 2021. Alsuwaiyan contributed to the establishment of Etihad Etisalat
Company (Mobily) and launching its commercial operations where more than one million
clients were reached in less than three months. In addition, Alsuwaiyan contributed
boosting customer satisfaction by enhancing the strategy of application and services.
Alsuwaiyan worked on developing the digital strategy of the Saudi Industrial development
fund by expanding the provision of financial products and services, enhanced credit
policies, re-engineered and designed financing procedures.
At the Ministry of Finance, Alsuwaiyan led the digital transformation by expansion of
infrastructure and development of financial systems and automating business process
between the public and private sector through the launch of a financial services platform
(Etimad).
The cyber security risk has not
magically disappeared by 2030.
Andrew Dinsley
Head of Program,
Andrew Dinsley became Deputy Head
Cyber Security at the
(Programs), Cyber Policy Department, in
Foreign, Commonwealth &
2018. He started his career in the Foreign &
Commonwealth Office (now FCDO) in 1989.
Development Office (FCDO),
Throughout his career, he has served in a
UK Government
number of countries, such as Ukraine, Kuwait,
Kazakhstan and India. His recent UK roles
include Head of Information, Communication
and Technology (ICT), Commercial
Procurement Group, and Head of Programs,
Multilateral Policy Department.
In 2030, government is more What we have seen is a much anticipated. Simply put, the great
digital. It is more automated. It is better level of awareness and benefits of having all of these new
more sustainable. But we have not education — not only of the public services online have been
yet banished the malicious actors risks, but also of the options for somewhat countered by a more
from the internet. And that, in turn, resilience and future technology sophisticated and widespread cyber
continues to create significant opportunities. More recently, in threat.
barriers to adoption and a full-scale addition to its efforts to protect the
digital transformation of government population from harm, government Security for all
services. has increased its activities to help It is not all doom and gloom. Indeed,
the population protect itself, by there have been a number of
Just as government has become
building technology in a secure-by- significant advances in the global
more sophisticated, so too have the
design manner. They are talking to cyber security stance since the
malicious actors. The war in Ukraine
companies about what situations early 2020s. One has been the
in 2022 demonstrated that state
may warrant insurance and/or widespread adoption and utilization
actors wield cyber capabilities at a
additional and higher levels of of automated and active cyber
time of conflict. Attacks by non-state
resilience. They are paying particular defense. That provided businesses
actors continue to grow. Newer and
attention to the vast majority of and individuals with much better
smarter hacking tools continue to
critical infrastructure that relies on baseline defense. At the same time,
be offered ‘as-a-service’. The cyber
public-private partnerships. increasing levels of awareness,
security risk has not magically
disappeared by 2030; although, at education and capabilities have
Unlocking adoption and
the same time, our cyber security greatly enhanced local and national
value resilience. And there has been a
and resilience has also increased.
The impact of the ongoing cyber better understanding of how the
Taking steps to mitigate risk on rates of digital government development and deployment
the risk service adoption has been of technology must include
interesting. There are still many marginalized and vulnerable groups
Government has been working so that they do not become victims
countries where more than half
diligently to improve resilience and of cyber crime.
of voters show up to the physical
reduce harm. We have much better
polling booth on election day Perhaps most encouragingly, we’ve
education about cyber risk starting
preferring to use a paper and pencil also seen significant efforts to share
in school and stretching right out
to log their vote. There are many best practices, threat intelligence
to retirement. People have a better
people across society who have and solutions across organizations
understanding of what they should
been subject to a malicious cyber and borders. It’s not good enough
do if they are subject to a malicious
attack in the past and are now that the UK is protected from a
action. Government has been
extraordinarily cautious about what threat — we need to make sure
investing heavily into research and
they do online. Other services other countries are protected as
development on cyber security.
simply haven’t captured the public’s well. And today, in 2030, we are
They have increased the level of
imagination as a digital service. taking steps to ensure the broad
legislation in the cyber arena. Yet, at
the same time, they are trying not to This ongoing cyber risk has benefits of cyber security are
stifle innovation and transparency. frequently meant that adoption rates enjoyed by all.
have been somewhat lower than
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily
represent the views and opinions of KPMG International Limited or any KPMG member firm.
The Internet of
Things has
become the
internet of
capabilities —
human and
machine.
Ashwini Bakshi
Former Managing Director,
Europe & Sub-Saharan Africa,
Project Management Institute
How did public sector projects down into more discrete, learnings of the private sector. People
productivity evolve over the measurable, time-bound and value- with deep experience in digital
oriented outcomes that had to be technologies and transformation
past decade to 2030?
delivered by individuals, teams and entered the public sector workforce
There were many factors that worked institutions. That created a very laterally. And that injected a culture
together. On the tech side, we saw strong productivity dynamic. of value, lean, productivity and
an early push into cloud enablement efficiency. All the characteristics of
and digital transformation. But it How did government private sector project management
was the entry of intelligence into the capabilities and skills evolve started to become mantras in the
infrastructure ecosystem that really as a result? public sector too.
drove a step change. It took some
In the 2020s, governments really How has the notion of value
time for the digital capabilities and
caught on to continuous learning. changed?
computing power to catch up. But
Study after study has shown that the
once it did, everything became ultra- It took some time for people to really
more you educate the population,
connected with the Internet of Things understand the balances between
the better off and the happier they
(IoT). Now the IoT has become the short- and long-term value. At the
are. Population growth slows.
internet of capabilities — human and start of the decade, for example,
Gross domestic product (GDP)
machine. we knew environmental risk was a
rises. Innovation becomes more
At the same time, public sector common. But it’s not just continuous long-term challenge, but we didn’t
productivity was also driven by learning — we needed to connect make the short-term changes we
changes in the population itself. it to continuous performance. And needed to address the long-term
People have become increasingly achieving that connection has given issue. Now, we recognize that we
digitally savvy, economically government the right capabilities only have a finite amount of time to
savvy and politically savvy. The to be much more flexible in an achieve certain outcomes.
population demanded more uncertain world. We also recognize that value is a
and more information, more collaborative concept. You can’t just
I think the social dividend really
capabilities, more performance and base your view of value on what
helped governments in Africa and
more accountability. That, in turn, you need as an individual or an
Asia here. Over the past decade,
drove further digitalization and a organization. You need to recognize
some 60 million young people from
transformation of governmental that you are connected to the
these regions have graduated and
institutions. community, to other organizations,
they’ve been transforming business
The nature of the work has also and government in all sorts of ways. to your service windows, to other
changed dramatically over the past They’ve been helping the public governments and so on. If we
decade, leading to more efficient sector create entirely new skill sets wanted to achieve value and manage
productivity gains. The public and capabilities as a result. our long- and short-term risk, it was
sector started to follow the lead imperative to find that balance.
We also saw public sector
of the private sector by breaking
institutions start to really leverage the
Ashwini Bakshi led the Project Management Institute’s (a not-for-profit professional

association of project managers and strategic changemakers) growth and organizational
development in the Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe regions. Ashwini has over 25 years in
sales, business development, M&A and alliances across diverse geographies of Europe
and the Asia Pacific. He has worked in organizations like Nokia and Ericsson. He aims
to create value through resolving customers’ needs and challenges quickly and prides
himself in building trusted relationships.
Today, we create processes that are
digitally native.
Daljit Rehal
Chief Digital and
Information Officer
(CDIO), HM Revenue
& Customs (HMRC),
UK Government
The change in the relationship services in the most convenient way more value from their tax data and
between tax authorities like for our taxpayers. interactions. By opening up our
HMRC and taxpayers has changed application programming interfaces
In 2030, interacting with the tax
dramatically over the decade to (APIs), we collaborated with entire
authority is much simpler and much
2030. And the journey has been industry groups — financial services
more assisted than it was in the early
somewhat spectacular. firms, accounting firms, tech firms
2020s. It involves one login and a
and others — to start creating
In the early 2020s, we still had a seamless set of artificial intelligence
innovative applications that made it
complex system of unintegrated (AI)-driven digital assistants that help
a lot easier for taxpayers to interact
processes. By the mid-2020s, customers with whatever they came
with their data. By focusing on the
we had made great progress in to accomplish. When interacting with
world of zero-code and low-code
digitalizing and simplifying those HMRC, all customer information is in
technology, we have given businesses
processes. Today, in 2030, however, one place. As a customer, you have
amazing latitude to create their own
we are at a stage where we create your own cloud space where you can
sophisticated applications.
processes that are digitally native — access all correspondence, past tax
built to take full advantage of digitally- returns, personal data and more. And Of course, data privacy remains a key
led front-, middle- and back-office we use AI and machine learning to concern for everyone. But, thankfully,
capabilities. help taxpayers uncover value from we have made great progress in
that data. understanding the permissions we
Taxpayers and customers interact
have been given by the customer and
with us through whatever channel For example, we use open banking
defining the boundaries of how we
they choose — they can reach us software to integrate tax data and
can use data. Today, we have a strong
on everything from the HMRC financial data into one place so
ethics framework that supports us
portal through to social media apps. taxpayers can see their charitable
in that space. But in 2020, it could
They can speak to us by clicking the donations or how much tax credit or
sometimes be a confusing picture.
microphone icon on our website and debt they have. If they have credit,
describing what they’re trying to we tell them about their options for I would argue that our journey to
do. Users can also use our chat bot using that credit to pay a different tax digitalization at HMRC between
by typing in free-form English and a bill or move the balance to another tax 2020 and 2030 picked up massive
digital cognitive assistant will have regime. The entire focus is on helping speed as we moved from digital
a conversation with the customer taxpayers access their information to augmented — using base
about their needs. If the digital and make decisions seamlessly and technologies like AI, machine
cognitive assistant cannot help, we without friction. learning and natural language
always have human beings on hand processing to drive an entirely
Indeed, there is now a massive
to take that call. Or, if pressed for different interaction between
ecosystem of tools and apps
time, we can organize a time to have taxpayers and tax authorities.
available to help taxpayers get
a call. The goal is always to deliver
Daljit Rehal is a leader who has several years of experience in creating business
value through culture, people, process and technology in the utility and
telecommunications sectors, covering multiple markets, including the UK, the
Republic of Ireland, and the US. Prior to his role as CDIO for HMRC, Daljit was the
Senior Vice President of Digital and Data and Chief Data Officer at Centrica. Daljit has
led the modernization of digital and data capabilities, earning himself internal and
external recognition as one of the top 100 Global IT leaders. He has pioneered the
adoption of big data, artificial intelligence/machine learning technologies and Agile
methods alongside other commercialized innovations.
represent the views and opinions of KPMG International Limited or any KPMG member firm
Government
found the
strength to
come into
negotiations with
private sector
companies on an
equal footing.
Prof. Dr. Gerhard Hammerschmid
Professor of Public and Financial Management
and Director, Centre for Digital Governance,
Hertie School
Gerhard Hammerschmid is Professor of Public Management and Director of the Centre

for Digital Governance at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. His research focuses
on public management reform, comparative public administration and government
digitalization. He contributed to key European Union-funded research projects on public
sector innovation and government transformation, and his research has been published in
leading international public administration journals. Gerhard has 25 years of experience in
communicating research findings to high-level government decision makers and in 2021
was included in Apolitical’s list of the 100 most influential academics in government.
Digital government is quickly than supporting solutions. Labor assignments, bringing with them
becoming a reality in Germany. It practices made it difficult to share their ideas and capabilities. Public
pains me to admit it, but Germany’s skills. Data privacy laws complicated sector workers started to identify
governments struggled to digitalize matters at every turn. For the better themselves as representing the
through the 2020s. We did not make part of the 2020s, little real progress whole of government and serving
the same progress as other highly was made. citizens rather than just their
industrialized states. Nor have we function or department.
kept up with developing nation Back on the autobahn
Less subtle was the change in public
governments who used their lack of The 2030s will be very different. attitude towards government and
legacy infrastructure and regulation Indeed, this will be the decade when technology. Digitalization forced
to their advantage. The good news is Germany not only catches up to its governments to become more
that today, in 2030, we seem to have digital government peers, but also transparent very quickly, particularly
finally turned the corner. starts to move past them. And there with relation to citizen data.
is lots of evidence to suggest this is Governments started to engage in
A decade of detours
more than wishful thinking. marketing campaigns aimed at raising
In part, the lack of progress resulted digital and data ownership literacy and
What changed? Analyzing other
from Germany’s rather complicated engagement. Opening more channels
governments and their digitalization
system of tiered government. of proactive communication created
journeys — pulling from their
Achieving consensus among the space for trust to build between
best practices and determining
various federal ministries, state citizens and government.
Germany’s identity in the modern
ministries and local authorities took
digital world were some of the key
much longer than our counterparts. Off to the races
factors. Some were more subtle
Public sector thinking remained in
changes, like when we realized that I think the most obvious sign of
silos with very little sharing of best
we needed to focus on a handful of Germany’s government digitalization
practices or technologies between
priority services rather than trying to journey is in policymaking. Policy
departments. Procurement tended
pull the whole of government along makers and analysts have now
to be laborious and inflexible. The
the journey at once. We could focus become highly data-driven, and
private sector — often led by big
on what had the highest impact for all policy functions have a strong
tech firms eager to sell a solution —
citizens and society. And that gave understanding of the value that
held significant influence over the
government the strength to come digitalization can deliver to their
path that the digitalization journey
into negotiations with private sector service areas. That, in itself, is a big
would take.
companies on an equal footing. driver. The more data, efficiency and
Other challenges also slowed Procurement became more flexible insights policy makers demand, the
progress. Citizens did not have and solutions-driven. more urgency and resources will be
the level of trust needed to fully put towards the digitalization journey.
At the same time, attitudes
drive digital adoption. Public sector
towards labor practices and talent Germany may have gotten off to a
organizations lacked the capacity
models evolved to become much slow start, but in 2030, we seem
and capabilities required to plan
more flexible. That allowed skilled to have finally turned the corner.
and execute a technology-based
private sector workers to come Digital government is now a priority
transformation. Regulation was
into the government on short-term in Germany.
focused on mitigating risks rather
represent the views and opinions of KPMG International Limited or any KPMG member firm
People thought
technology alone
would flatten
governmental
silos.
It did not.
Greg Wells
Government Chief Information and
Digital Officer (GCIDO), New South
Wales (NSW) Government
Greg Wells became the GCIDO in July 2018, making him the NSW Government’s most
senior technology executive. Greg advocates for technology that enables the NSW
Government’s objectives and fosters sector-wide collaboration on a digital agenda to
continue to transform the state into a global technology leader. Greg’s extensive career in
government technology has included leading the delivery of a multi-agency platform to
help protect children at risk with the NSW Department of Family and Community Services
and running NSW Health’s ICT strategy, policy governance and operations as the Chief
Information Officer, where he was recognized with the Australian Healthcare CIO of the
Year award in 2014.
Back in the early 2020s, people Government started to refocus Citizens in control
thought technology alone would all resources around the needs
flatten governmental silos. It did not. of the customer. More and more, In 2030, all aspects of government
What a contemporary approach to we didn’t have time for the debate service delivery are hyper-
technology did do, however, was about policy versus service design. personalized, controlled and
allow us to integrate those silos and Instead, we focused on life journeys efficient — to the point of being
hand the control over to customers. and what would make life easier and invisible. They are also integrated
And that empowered us to deliver better for our customers. It unlocked across the various levels of
the seamless, controlled and a very customer-centric approach to government. Since consumers
personalized experience our citizens service delivery. control their data, they are able to
wanted. give governments permission to
Accepting that government work together, within their silos, but
The fallacy of flat government structures and systems would coordinating to seamlessly deliver
never reach a utopian ‘flat’ allowed services to the customer.
Even now, in 2030, it seems fairly us to pivot our data management
clear that government is never approach too. In the early 2020s, Investment strategies are also
going to fully conceptually ‘flatten’. common wisdom, or our default integrated — across physical
Politics will always require ministers approach, meant governments and digital, between short-
to take responsibility for portfolios. essentially owned and controlled term and the long-term needs,
Complexity and the need for citizen data. The shift to customer- among departments and levels of
localization means there will always centricity allowed governments to government, and across the life
be different levels of government. hand customers control of their own journey. Analytics and real customer
The reality of democracy means that data and facilitate access to services insights have provided agility and
decisions will continue to be shaped using their digital identification. With flexibility to constantly adjust our
in political cycles. control and their consent, citizens approach to meet requirements.
were able to open up their data And focus has shifted from building
What we realized in the early
across government departments, assets to delivering services.
2020s was that government didn’t
need to flatten in order to deliver allowing service designers and Different path to the right
the type of controlled, seamless policy-makers to organize around life
destination
and personalized experiences that journeys and events.
citizens were demanding of it. But Government may not have flattened
It also enabled us to think about
it did need to be designed around much in the past decade. But,
service delivery more holistically.
them. And it needed to be controlled here in 2030, citizens are receiving
In particular, we’ve made great
by them. the kind of seamless, controlled
progress in integrating the priorities
and personalized experience they
Improving life journeys and of the physical and the digital to
expect from their public sector
drive our investment strategies.
events organizations. How government is
We’re not bound by the models of
organized was always less important
That realization progressively the past. We no longer believe that
than the outcomes it delivered —
cemented customer-centric service every child must attend a physical
and we’re so glad that’s what has
design, data ownership and a focus school for all subjects, nor that every
driven our approach for more than 10
on security, privacy and ethics as patient needs to visit a clinic or
years now.
‘the’ way government needed to hospital for all phases of their care.
approach service delivery. Citizens move seamlessly across
the physical and digital channels to
get the services they require.
In 2030, the concept
of cities is changing.
Time and space are
becoming blurred and
the urban/rural divide is
falling away.
Dr. Julia Glidden
Corporate Vice President,
Worldwide Public Sector, Microsoft
We drove digital adoption at a
very grassroots level.
Jayesh Ranjan is the Principal Secretary of the Industries & Commerce (I&C) and
Information Technology (IT) Departments of the Government of Telangana in India.
His assignment involves developing policy frameworks, attracting new investments,
identifying opportunities for utilizing IT in various government processes, and promoting
the digital empowerment of citizens. His last few assignments have been in the Industrial
Promotion sector as Commissioner and Managing Director of the Industries Department,
Secretary in the Tourism Promotion Department, and Vice-Chairman of the Hyderabad
Urban Development Authority (HUDA), and various rural assignments in different parts
of the state, working in diverse sectors like Tribal Development, Natural Resources
Management, Poverty Alleviation and other related Social Development Sectors.
Jayesh Ranjan
Secretary, Information
Technology, Government
of Telangana, India
In 2030, lots of governments Ultimately, it was a combination way to convince people to change
are looking at the State of of an innovative culture, a clear their behavior was by showing them
route to market for start-ups and an how digital could impact their daily
Telangana to understand
increasingly skilled population that lives. It was by getting down to the
how you drove digital allowed Telangana to leap ahead on pain points that local citizens were
transformation across the digital journey. struggling with and demonstrating
government, private sector how digital tools could solve these
How did you get people to problems that really drove adoption.
and community. Can you
actually adopt and use these
tell us where the innovation What types of use cases did
new technologies?
came from? you demonstrate and how
Again, it was a combination of
There were a number of factors have they impacted people’s
things — in this case, technology,
that came together to spark that lives in 2030?
culture and demonstration. In the
innovation. We started with a strong
early 2020s, Telangana completed One of our earliest focus areas was
base — Hyderabad was already well
its flagship T-Fiber program that in the agricultural sector. We had
known as a center of innovation
brought high-speed fiber to every a national goal to double incomes
and entrepreneurship. And then
household across the state. So in the agricultural sector and we
the government created a robust
the infrastructure to drive digital believed technology could help. We
web of progressive policies to help
transformation was already at started with a catalogue of about
grow and scale that investment into
the doorstep of every citizen. The 100 different tools and technologies
innovation, attracting a number of
problem was convincing them that that we could demonstrate to
global R&D hubs and start-ups.
digital tools and digital literacy could farmers at every stage in the
To reduce the risk of innovation and improve their lives. production cycle. We showed them
to make Hyderabad a more attractive how to use these tools and how
In part, we solved that at a
place to invest, we offered bilateral they could make their lives better.
very grassroots level. In every
procurement on any homegrown I’m proud to report that Telangana
community, we set up Digital
technologies that could address was the first state to achieve the
Telangana Centers within
an important need for local people. goal of doubling incomes in the
kiosks operated by local female
Those with good ideas would agricultural sector — and we have
entrepreneurs from the same
essentially be assured a contract technology to thank.
background as the communities
and a clear route to market.
they serve, making them more Another important use case was
The other factor was a simultaneous relatable. These people served in healthcare. In the early 2020s,
improvement in citizen skills and as a conduit for introducing the good healthcare was only accessible
capabilities. We have seen great community to digital services. The to those in major cities. We used
innovation by government and kiosks served as connectivity points. digital to bring good healthcare
others to leverage new technologies Together, they helped people with out to rural areas. And now we
like virtual reality and the metaverse things like online bill payments and are using technologies like virtual
to conduct training, skills upgrading license renewals, saving people reality and the metaverse to make
and development. And, again, that time and helping them become those experiences more valuable.
has attracted companies focused more familiar with digital. Being able to bring good healthcare
on developing tools for digital and to a farmer’s doorstep has been a
The ability to demonstrate benefit
virtual training and education to wonderful achievement.
was massive. We found the best
come to our jurisdiction.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily
Digital infrastructure changed
the way we build physical
infrastructure.
John Kwong
Head of Project Strategy &
Governance Office, Development
Bureau, Government of Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region
John Kwong was appointed Head of Project Strategy and Governance Office for the Hong
Kong Special Administrative Region Development Bureau in April 2019. In his role, he
formulates strategic initiatives to strengthen governance and uplift performance of public
projects by reinforcing the existing gateway process for cost management, enhancing
project delivery capability, leading strategic developments to enhance cost-effectiveness
and enhancing collaboration with international counterparts and local industry
stakeholders. John is a civil engineer by training. He graduated from the University of Hong
Kong and obtained several postgraduate degrees in engineering and law. Before joining the
Development Bureau, he worked in the Drainage Services Department and the Commerce
and Economic Development Bureau.
Ten years ago, construction site Adjustments are made in real time. communities. The economy around
activity represented over 60 percent Everything is timed to perfection. construction has also changed as a
of the time involved in delivering There is no waste. result — we are no longer limited by
projects. Today in 2030, less than the resources available in any given
On the construction site, workers
30 percent happens on-site and the location.
partner with intelligent machines to
overall planning-design-build cycle
assemble the final asset. At night, There were two big factors that
time has been reduced by over
machinery moves automatically to really drove the digitalization of
50 percent. Why? Because digital
prepare for the next day’s the construction industry through
technologies have transformed the
activities — the ground is re-graded the 2020s. The first was the rising
way we design, build assemble and
and units are moved into place. awareness of the need for greater
manage our assets.
Robots are used in any risky areas sustainability in the construction
Data to design to such as confined spaces or at great industry. Digitalization means less
development heights. Drones undertake regular waste, a lower carbon footprint and
inspections for quality and safety greater productivity per input used.
In 2030, we have a comprehensive control. Social awareness of environmental
Hong Kong SAR territory-wide digital sustainability really pushed the
twin for development. It contains Today in 2030, onsite construction
industry towards becoming more
all the design and baseline data — makes up just a small proportion of
digitally enabled.
things like ground investigation data, the overall development lifecycle.
utilities, topographic records and so Modular integrated construction Government helped to play a key
on — that we need in order to allow (MiC) is the norm. In Hong Kong role. In Hong Kong SAR, we started
artificial intelligence (AI) to design SAR, deep partnerships with by advocating for the digitalization
new infrastructure and facilities. factories in the Greater Bay Area of public works projects. We also
We input the basic requirements created an amazingly dynamic provided funding and subsidies to
and parameters. The system then hub of innovation and activity. BIM industry players who invested into
creates the design options for models are sent to factories in digital approaches and
checking and consideration, with mainland China; ready-to-assemble technologies — the adoption
building information modeling (BIM) pieces are sent back in return. of things like BIM and digital
technology and photomontages works supervision systems were
A stronger and more rewarded. At the same time, we
generated for easy visualization on
sustainable future created policies that encouraged
the final products. Once the design
is agreed upon, the system sends The impact on the construction and greater digitalization in the industry,
the specs to the factory. infrastructure sectors has been particularly through procurement
incredible. MiC approaches and levers. Government proved to be a
At the factory, automated strong catalyst for the digitalization
digital tools have optimized people’s
technology sets about of the industry.
time and driven unprecedented
manufacturing the units and parts
efficiency across planning, design, Ultimately, it took digitalization
needed to deliver the design.
development and operations. and data to change the way we
Everything is connected. The data
Construction times have been shape the built environment. And
on each piece and activity moves
slashed, further reducing costs, our construction and infrastructure
through the system without friction
improving efficiency and leading industries are stronger as a result.
and without human interference.
to better relationships with local
We came
together
globally to
assert human
agency over
technology.
Dr. Julia Glidden

Corporate Vice President,
Worldwide Public Sector,
Microsoft
Dr. Julia Glidden is Corporate Vice President,
Worldwide Public Sector, at Microsoft.
An internationally recognized expert on
digital government, Dr. Glidden specializes
in identifying and piloting emerging
technologies such as artificial intelligence
(AI), cloud and blockchain. Julia pioneered the
concept of “cognitive government” and has
delivered many of Europe's leading innovation
projects. She is an expert advisor to the
United Nations, the World Economic Forum
and the European Commission. Julia is named
in Apolitical’s inaugural list of the Top 100
most influential people in digital government.
What do cities look like in in Ukraine. Those were indeed dark people at a community, regional,
2030? days. And much changed because of national and international level.
those events. Take data, for example.
In 2030, the concept of cities is The pandemic forced governments Was there ever a risk of
changing. Time and space are to digitize almost overnight. Then technology overtaking
becoming blurred and the urban/ the rise of cyber warfare made them humans?
rural divide is falling away. The rethink what data they collected, who
ubiquity of technology and the I remember back in the early 2020s,
controlled it and where it was kept. In
introduction of 6G in the late 2020s as we were entering the cyber
2030, we’ve arrived at a place where
means we can now be anywhere, wars, people were worried about
governments and citizens have self-
at any time, living together, things like singularity. There were
sovereign control over their data,
experiencing together, working concerns that AI would start self-
regardless of its location. Trust has
together. You can experience the replicating and developing its own
increased as a result. But the journey
New York Metropolitan Opera governance. But, of course, that
to where we are today was not easy.
from a rural village in India; you can didn’t happen because we came
experience rural India from a condo How did that period together globally to assert human
in New York City. impact the relationship agency over technology. We made
very conscious decisions that we
between citizens and their
Has that undermined the were going to put technology in
governments? the service of humans. We saw
sense of community in cities?
There was a lot of geopolitical that nothing in technology can take
Not at all — it has enhanced it. away the beauty and vibrancy of the
upheaval and some backlash against
What’s been beautiful is that, as we human spirit.
the controls governments had put in
embraced an era where we can be
place to keep us safe. And that really
together without physically meeting, Has technology solved most
opened up governments’ eyes. They
we recognized we still need human of the world’s problems?
realized they need to do a better job
touch. We still need communities.
listening, learning, collaborating and I wouldn’t say we are in a
It’s our sense of what community
co-creating with everyone — not technological utopia yet. But we
means that has changed. Your
just the loudest or more powerful have achieved a good balance — a
community isn’t just the people
voices. And they harnessed balance between local and global,
within physical proximity — it
technology to enable them to do between technology and human
includes people around the world
that. Communities everywhere agency, between personalized
and in different environments.
were strengthened. service and surveillance. And that
How did the turmoil of I think the most beautiful thing has balance has allowed us to control
the early 2020s influence been how technology has allowed technology and use it in a positive
government technology us to appreciate, respect, value and way. So technology hasn’t solved
adhere to social diversity while, at all our problems. But it has made it
today?
the same time, delivering public possible to deal with them.
First, there was the COVID-19 services that meet the needs of
pandemic, then the serious conflict
Since consumers
control their data in
2030, they are able
to give governments
permission to work
together, within their
silos, but coordinating
to seamlessly deliver
services to the
customer.
Greg Wells
Government Chief Information and Digital Officer,
New South Wales (NSW) Government
We seek out ways
to improve people’s
probability of
success.
Dr. Kate Cordell is a Behavioral Health Data
Scientist and Researcher. As Co-Founder
and President at Opeeka, Dr. Cordell leads
the development of artificial intelligence
(AI) statistical models, many published
in peer-reviewed journals. Opeeka builds
solutions to enable improved efficiency and
quality in care. Opeeka’s products support
person-centered care using success-
focused AI that learns over time what works
for whom. Dr. Cordell holds a Bachelor’s
degree from Rutgers University, a Masters
in Public Health (MPH) in Biometry from the
Graduate School of Public Health at San
Diego State University and a PhD from the
School of Social Welfare at the University of
California, Berkeley.
Dr. Kate Cordell

CEO, Chief Scientific Officer
and Co-Founder, Opeeka Inc.
In the 2020s, we flipped the way we success — regardless of whether Linear no more
talked about mental health, which they’re linear or not. AI allows us to
Of course, there were some
catalyzed a massive change in the look across thousands of indicators
challenges along the way. Data
way we help patients in 2030. in billions of people’s lives. Our
privacy and data sharing were
focus on finding patterns of success
A decade ago, in the early 2020s, we hurdles at first: healthcare
removes the stigmas and barriers
talked about patients as risks. We professionals were reluctant to
that used to hold people back
used words like ‘compliance’ and share data even though patients
from seeking care because the
‘adherence failure’. We assessed wanted their care teams to work
experience is more positive. We
patients based on the risk they posed together. It became increasingly
have moved our line of questioning
to themselves, their livelihoods and clear that better sharing led to better
from “what’s wrong with you that
their productivity. We incentivized outcomes, and patients advocated
you’re seeking care today?” to
the management of risk, thereby for greater integration of data across
“what does success look like to you
keeping patients in care longer than the healthcare continuum. Today’s
after you receive care today?”
necessary. We thought linearly, we healthcare teams work together and
worked with cases and we operated In 2030, the first interaction share information to help the patient
in silos around a patient. most patients have with a mental succeed — patients don’t need to
healthcare professional happens tell and retell their story because
In the 2020s, clinicians were islands
through a bot. Patients engage with care teams can work together to
unto themselves. Every clinician
it however they want. They tell it support a patient’s goals.
had their own unique process for
what they want to tell it. They share
identifying how best to treat their It also took some time to stop
their problems, circumstances and
patients. Data wasn’t just siloed in thinking so linearly about mental
history with non-judgmental AI.
disparate electronic systems. It was healthcare. Back in the early 2020s,
siloed within the minds of individual The AI then uses the information before we began applying AI, we
clinicians. the patient shared to build out a used linear statistical models.
visual story map — everything from There was a real limitation in
In 2030, we talk about patient
childhood traumas through to recent the simplistic linear models that
success. We seek out ways to
events. It finds patients with similar prevented us from understanding
improve people’s probability of
situations and identifies what led to the complexities of people, their
success. We work with them
their successes, helping the clinician goals and their care plans. Now we
to achieve their care goals. We
see what might work well. And it know that we can recognize non-
graduate them out of care, helping
provides the clinician and the patient linear patterns across hundreds of
them become self-sufficient and
with a set of recommendations thousands of predictors, allowing
supporting them with ongoing
and options that could lead to them us to look at patients from a
services when needed.
achieving their particular goals. psychological, environmental,
Rather than being islands, clinicians biological and cultural perspective.
That means clinicians can now focus
now act as pools, sharing their We see the whole person. And we
on building relationships and helping
insights through an electronic brain look at change over time, not just at
patients instead of transactionally
trust to recognize opportunities a point in time.
collecting data. And they can focus
for patient success. Care
on the challenges that matter Flip the perspective, flip the
recommendations are driven by AI.
most, rather than trying to address model
Data informs our decisions and care
everything at once. Patients achieve
pathways. We think holistically, we Data sharing and AI have allowed us
better outcomes faster. Healthcare
work with people and we work as care to flip the model for mental health.
payers have slashed their cost to
teams to help people achieve goals. It has made patient care more
treat patients. The societal benefits
The robot will see you now are immeasurable. And the irony is science-based, more accessible,
that AI has allowed us to become more holistic and more patient-
This shift in mindset allowed us to more human in the way we treat focused. Technology has enabled the
think differently about the way we patients. humans in the care continuum to
apply AI and technology. Today, we focus on the success of the patient,
use AI to help us unlock patterns of which has made all the difference.
In 2030, government oversees a marketplace
of service providers, technologies and
ecosystems.
Katrin Reinhold
Former Director, Health
and Welfare Information
Systems Center, Ministry of
Social Affairs of Estonia
Government in 2030 is collaborative platform set the stage for data efforts on the e-Estonia initiative and
by design — it collaborates within integration at the time. But back in investments into X-Road created
departments, across departments the early 2020s, data was still siloed the platform that was needed for
and with the private sector. In fact, in departmental registries. It was adoption. By lacking these enablers,
the role of government has largely reported into open registries only other markets have struggled to
shifted from being a direct procurer after a time delay. So while records move as quickly.
of services to instead being the and processes were digital, the data
The average citizen may tell you
keeper of the rules and standards by wasn’t always actionable.
their interactions with government
which services are provided.
By automatically generating the have become more seamless, more
In 2030, government oversees a metadata in real time, government efficient and more personalized.
marketplace of service providers, made it easier for innovators to My view of the decade to 2030
technologies and ecosystems — a access the data they needed suggests we owe this to the
library of government services that to create new solutions using government’s shift away from
citizens can access. Start-ups and anonymized data. It allowed service procurement and towards
service providers have built their providers to better triage and target overseeing a marketplace of verified,
solutions on top of the platform. their services. It let government secure services.
Citizens provide permissions departments talk to each other more
for their data to be pulled from efficiently and effectively.
appropriate registries when
More importantly, perhaps, it
required. Government’s key role is
allowed new technologies like
to verify those solutions and ensure Katrin Reinhold was the
artificial intelligence (AI) and
the security of the data. Director of Health and
machine learning to be introduced
That means government is hugely into processes. For example, in Welfare Information
interactive and user-friendly. For the healthcare sector, patients Systems Center in
example, if you have the misfortune are being triaged and referrals are Estonia from 2017 to 2021.
of experiencing an accident, the being written based on data from The Health and Welfare
Ministry of Social Affairs pulls a handful of questions analyzed by
Information Systems
all the levers needed to get you an algorithm. Access to automated
rehabilitation services, healthcare real-time metadata also allows Center is an information
support, perhaps even work doctors and care providers to and communication
training if a new job is required. monitor progress and build a library technology (ICT)
That’s in the background. At the of scientific knowledge around care competence center in
front end, citizens can go online outcomes and patient pathways. the field of health, social
to see all of the different providers
Of course, creating this marketplace security and labor in the
they could select to access those
of government services was not administrative area of the
services based on measures like
easy. It took interoperability. It took Ministry of Social Affairs of
cost, proximity and ratings. Once
standards and rules. It took key
selected, citizens can then give Estonia. Katrin has a wide
enablers like electronic identity
permission for the appropriate data range of ICT expertise as
standards, consent and protocols
to flow across that ecosystem. a result of her technology
for data exchange. And it took the
Interestingly, one of the keys to automation of metadata generation. and business background.
unlocking this reality for 2030 was It also required government to She has extensive
a fairly straightforward technology navigate a constantly changing experience in different
solution — automating the release range of cyber threats and risks.
management positions
of metadata into open registries.
Estonia was perhaps best placed to in the ICT area within the
Estonia has always been one of the
take advantage of new technologies private and public sectors.
most advanced digital governments.
as they became available. Early
E-Estonia’s X-Road interoperability
The cyber security risk has
not magically disappeared
by 2030; although, at the
same time, our cyber
security and resilience
has increased.
Andrew Dinsley
Head of Program,
Cyber Security at the Foreign,
Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO),
UK Government
In 2030, everything has a digital twin —
buildings, systems, and even people.
Khoong Hock Yun, a Harvard Business
School alumnus, is Managing Partner
(Blockchain Fund 1 and 2) at Tembusu
Partners, a Founding Board Member
of the Klaytn Foundation, and Senior
Advisor with the Aedge Group Limited.
He has more than 30 years of experience
in both public and private sector
organizations. He was the Chief Digital
Evangelist and led the development
portfolio at the Infocomm Media
Development Authority (IMDA) of
Singapore. He helped Singapore more
than triple its info-communications
industrial revenue from US$15 billion in
2000 to US$52 billion in 2015.
Khoong Hock Yun

Managing Partner,
Tembusu Partners and Blockchain
Fund Founding Board Member,
Klaytn Foundation
In 2030, the world is highly digitized. supervision of regulators. That has are most often used in virtual
The concept of ‘work’ has evolved led to a much more efficient, flexible interactions — in the metaverse,
dramatically. And people interact and resilient banking and payment for example, or in interactions with
with each other — and with their system where customer transaction government services. Underpinning
public services — in very different fees are extraordinarily low and all these twins is data that’s
ways. None of it would be possible monetary system liquidity is high. It stored, accessed and verified
without the trust delivered by has also allowed supervisors to cut using blockchain technologies.
blockchain technologies. funding to terrorist organizations and That provides individuals and
hunt down organized crime. decision makers with the trust
Here are five use cases where
they need to be confident in their
blockchain is empowering the future Real asset transfers decisions.
in 2030:
In 2030, we use blockchain
Carbon tracking
Identity authentication technologies to track the ownership
and providence of all sorts of real We haven’t yet reversed the impacts
Whether you’re buying something
assets — from items moving in the of climate change. But we do have
in the metaverse or exercising
supply chain through to property a very sophisticated system of
your right to vote, the parties you
sales and investment transactions. verifiable carbon offsets and credits
interact with need to know that
Blockchain not only provides an that interact around the world.
you are a real person and that you
immutable record of ownership And blockchain technologies make
have the credentials you say you
over time and place, but it also it all work seamlessly. Airlines in
have. Blockchain allows identity
allows government agencies to Europe, for example, use smart
authentication providers to safely
deliver greater value by, for instance, contracts to automatically purchase
record and store key identity
conducting customs checks carbon credits in Asia — from, say,
elements and preferences that
and reviewing documentation a tree farm in Indonesia — to offset
can be released by individuals to
on imports as they arrive at a every flight mile. The transaction
companies and service providers as
port (versus waiting until all the is triggered and the assets
needed. In the real world, identity
paperwork arrives from various underpinning those credits are
authentication services have been
sources). The tokenization of assets verified and audited on blockchains.
particularly useful in managing
enables wider participation in
refugee crises, for example. While I’m clearly a strong advocate
significant investment opportunities
for blockchain technologies, my
Currency supervision such as ownership of companies
view of the past decade suggests
and real estate.
Cash went out in the late 2020s. In the most successful public and
2030, tokens can pay for everything. Digital twins private sector leaders were those
The question of which credit cards that took the time to understand and
In 2030, everything has a digital evaluate the use cases of a variety of
are accepted is replaced with which
twin — buildings, systems, and even different technologies. History has
tokens are accepted for payment.
people. Building and system digital proven that if you don’t understand
Governments have set up regulated
twins are used to improve designs, the technologies, you cannot take
exchanges where various tokens
identify efficiencies and test new the right risks to bring new and real
can be exchanged under the
innovations. Personal digital twins value to the world.
In 2030, government
oversees a marketplace
of service providers,
technologies and
ecosystems — a library
of government services
that citizens can
access.
Katrin Reinhold
Former Director,
Health and Welfare Information Systems Center,
Ministry of Social Affairs of Estonia
In 2030,
cities are
where the
action is.
Lawrence Eta
Chief Technology Officer,
City of Toronto
What role did cities play in the Was the transformation of need to take the lead on ensuring our
transformation of government government policy-led or services and channels are equitable,
accessible and inclusive. Early in
in the 2020s? technology-led?
the 2020s, Toronto implemented a
Cities have been the powerhouses Throughout history, policy has strategic framework to guide our
of government transformation. struggled to keep up with innovation. digital infrastructure planning and
Cities are where the action is. It’s In the 2020s, we saw the equation investments. The framework was
at the municipal level that citizens, get flipped. In a wide range of areas, based around principles of equity
residents and businesses tend to technology took the lead and forced and inclusion; a well-run city, society,
really see and interact with their policy to catch up. Take the use of economy and environment; privacy
government on a day-to-day basis. digital IDs, for example — it wasn’t and security; and digital autonomy.
So as governments started to until they were commonplace And that has enabled us to make
modernize and transform, cities and trusted by stakeholders that smart decisions that really helped us
were at the forefront. They needed to government finally revised their start to close that digital divide in 2030.
really understand and anticipate the policies to accept them. Eventually,
Few people in 2022 would have
experience from citizens, residents government developed and sourced
expected municipal governments
and businesses and their needs the skills and expertise they needed
to be significant champions of
and ability to serve them. Today, in to create policy that encouraged
advocating at all levels of government
2030, cities are more intelligent, innovation rather than controlling
for affordable and accessible
responsive and cognitive. And their it. But it took time and a lot of
innovative broadband delivery models,
digital DNA allows them to respond collaboration.
for example. But that’s what has
much faster to the ever-changing
How did Toronto bridge the allowed us to achieve some public
pressures facing cities and their
digital divide? trust and confidence aligned to
citizens.
digital infrastructure principles while
As I said, cities have been at the core implementing solutions to advance
of the digital transformation. So, we bridging the digital divide. It’s these
kinds of ideas and public-private improvements, change management meaningful contributions. Private
partnerships that really made a and digital. Being a CIO or CTO companies now encourage their
big difference in our underserved requires much more than technical talent to go spend some time working
communities. know-how. It takes a cross-functional in the public sector. Government and
skill set that includes business skills, public sector organizations encourage
Toronto was also very active in
financial skills, people skills and a deep talent to serve the community and
working with its innovation ecosystem
understanding of macro- and micro- take their experience back to the
to achieve its goal of making the city
economics and — perhaps most private sector. The exchange of
more livable and sustainable. Strong
importantly — the ability to motivate ideas and opportunities has been
partnerships with the innovation
people around a purpose. tremendous while also leaving
ecosystem — including organizations
communities in a better place.
with creative business models, Did you struggle to find
academia and corporates — helped the talent you needed to How did you build trust with
support the city’s work to achieve its citizens, residents and private
transform through the 2020s?
mandated goals. And it helped reduce
sector providers?
health disparity between the richest Interestingly, government identified
and poorest citizens, for example. talent internally and focused on the After years of abdicating control to
purposeful recruitment of external technology companies, governments
What role are technology and talent and leaders with a lens on leaned in further to hold companies
service providers playing? diversity and inclusion. After the to account for the way they managed
The partnerships between technology challenges of the early 2020s, we and utilized citizens’ and residents’
companies and cities are vital in 2030. found a greater sense of public data. We worked together —
I think technology companies and service within the community. People government, tech companies, private
service providers realized early on that wanted to spend a few years of their providers, citizens and residents — to
they needed to really invest into their lives working in the public sector as a ensure everyone understood how
clients’ success — and that meant way to gain experience and serve their data was to be used. I think that
reinvesting their profits back into R&D communities. Governments started to allowed us to achieve unprecedented
and innovation, creating social impact package their capability requirements collaboration and build strong
and helping develop sustainable forms into projects, sprints and workflows. levels of trust from citizens and
of investment. At the same time, Whether it is a two- to three-year residents looking to government and
cities also needed to make some assignment, or a different timeline, companies. We all knew we were
investments into driving the digital once complete, talent could return working together to create a better
transformation, particularly in areas to the private sector after making future for our communities.
of the community where citizens
and residents were not able to afford
those investments themselves. Lawrence Eta is the Chief Technology Officer for the City
In 2030, technology providers play an of Toronto. As a transformative business and technology
important role in delivering services, executive, he provides vision and strategy, enabling
but so does the city. innovative technology solutions that modernize and
How has the role of the Chief enhance the customer service experience. Over the span
Technology Officer (CTO) of his 20 plus years career, Lawrence has been involved
changed in 2030? in a wide range of technology industries, holding various
senior leadership positions. Lawrence is a TEDx speaker
Now that we have flipped the
and member of the Coalition of Innovation Leaders against
equation with technology driving
policy, Chief Information Officers Racism (CILAR). He is a passionate advocate of diversity and
(CIOs) and CTOs are at the center of inclusion, creating equity and prosperity for underserved
a hybrid system and business models communities and an advocate for BIPOC participation in
that link together policy, process Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM).
Patients are happier, healthier and more
empowered.
Lisa Hollins Lisa Hollins has been the Executive Director of UK

Operations for the British Red Cross since April 2022. She
previously held the role of Director of Innovation Delivery
Former Director
at NHSX (which is the joint unit of National Health Service
of Innovation,
England and the Department of Health and Social Care).
NHSX
Lisa has extensive leadership experience in the health
and social care sector. She is passionate about improving
services and has published articles in the British Medical
Journal and Health Service Journal.
In 2030, the last place you go for ups and innovators that were doing to quickly reassess their operating
healthcare is the hospital. Indeed, very interesting pathway work with models and structures as the
the big difference between 2020 new and emerging technologies like quantity, channel and type of service
and 2030 is how little time people AI and NLP. We started to understand, demand changed.
actually spend in doctors’ offices and and then predict, where the patient
A range of new skills were
healthcare facilities. risks may occur. And that allowed
required — for example, new
us to provide patients with more
In 2030, the vast majority of patients technology skills were needed to
bespoke and curated care options.
are at home, supported by a range of manage the infrastructure, new
different monitoring devices and virtual The third catalytic factor was the healthcare skills were used to
care channels. New care pathways adoption and integration of digital maximize the digital channels and
have emerged and transformed the pathways into the care continuum. new leadership skills were required
way care is delivered. And amazing The introduction of small-scale, mobile to spot changes on the horizon and
technologies like artificial intelligence and remote monitoring devices, such quickly respond.
(AI) and natural language processing as pulse oximeters and home blood
Trust in digital service delivery had
(NLP) have allowed us to share and pressure monitors, enabled patients
been a problem until the COVID-19
fully utilize data so we can deliver to monitor their own vital signs. The
pandemic. That global experience
targeted care and curated services. data was also immediately shared
demonstrated to populations that
across their clinical teams who were
That means fewer visits to data could be exchanged digitally and
monitoring the patient remotely.
healthcare facilities and earlier securely without putting patients at
This led to fewer patient visits to
identification of patient conditions — risk. In fact, patients were the biggest
the hospital, reduced pressure on
in other words, patients are happier, advocates for the digitization of care
the existing hospital workforce, and
healthier and more empowered. pathways and the greater sharing of
patients being monitored and, where
data across care teams. The number
Infrastructure, innovation required (and appropriate), treated in
of patients who prefer face-to-face
and information the comfort of their own home.
interaction over a digital channel has
There were three factors that led Combined, these three changes have dropped dramatically. With greater
to this radical transformation of led to radical transformations across experience has come trust.
healthcare as we knew it in 2020. the healthcare sector. Primary care
and acute services have been shifted Get out of the building
The first was that we started to
update the infrastructure to take it out of clinics and hospitals. Patient Ultimately, the most notable change
out of the organizational level and data is integrated at a regional level. of the decade from 2020 to 2030
into a system and regional level. Healthcare professionals spend is that we stopped centering care
Technology procurement is now their time working with patients, delivery around buildings and
based on the needs of population not inputting data and running down organizations and started centering it
health rather than the needs of a results. Resources are free to focus around patients, which has unlocked
particular service. That unlocked all on the most urgent cases. That has a radically different approach to health
sorts of new possibilities in the way led to tremendous improvements and social care. More than anything,
we captured and shared patient in health outcomes across the patients are happier, healthier and
data. And it led to unprecedented healthcare system. more empowered.
interoperability between providers in And a healthy dose of
the healthcare system.
inspiration
The second factor was our willingness
Of course, there have also been
to innovate on top of that patient data.
challenges to overcome since 2022.
We partnered with a wide range of
Hospital CEOs, for example, had
small-to-medium businesses, start-
The internet,
as we knew it in
2022, is gone.
Mark Paul
Founder & CEO, Iteum
Mark Paul is the Founder and CEO of Itheum. Mark has over 20 years of experience
building large-scale data, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and distributed software
initiatives for the government, enterprise and tech startup sectors. He founded Itheum
two years ago to build technology that empowers personal data sovereignty with a
focus now on making Itheum the core personal data protocol for the metaverse era.
The internet, as we knew it in passports. Companies issued entities are already operating in this
2022, is gone. In 2030, the world IDs. Social media giants verified way.
operates on a decentralized net identities. But now, with all data
powered by blockchain technology, ownership cryptographically proven, The Great Data Breach of
which has enabled a fundamental trust is a non-issue. It’s a ‘trustless’ 2028
transformation in the way people environment. What catalyzed this fundamental
live. shift from a centralized web to a
A smarter world
Decentralize the net, decentralized one? It was the Great
This shift to a decentralized net Data Breach of 2028. For years,
decentralize trust spawned a tidal wave of new ideas governments had been pushing all
The seeds of this transformation to a and innovations. Since individuals now their data into a handful of public
decentralized net were sown in the own their own data, they can trade or clouds. Then, one day in 2028,
early 2020s with the rise of digital sell it to third parties for various uses. hackers managed to crack the key
twins. In short order, pretty much People sell their data directly to their management systems that served
everything in the physical world was service providers in order to improve as the centralized encryption keys
mirrored in the virtual — objects, their service or receive greater value. to the data. In a matter of days, the
locations, even humans. Data Many allow their data to be used by personal data of citizens around the
flows off everything. And there are research organizations — anonymized world was compromised. Web 2.0
multiple interoperable blockchains and in aggregate — to help discover or had been breached. We needed to
capturing it all at scale. improve medical treatments. In each come up with a ‘trustless’ system
case, some consideration is given to and quickly. A decentralized web
In this world, everything is the owner, more often than not as seemed the obvious (and most
credited to an owner. As a human, a payment via token. In fact, many established) alternative.
we emit data that’s captured by people now make a good living just by
sensors and input devices that selling pieces of their personal data. However, the only reason we were
are plugged into the metaverse. able to switch from Web 2.0 to
As that data is created, its origin is The decentralized net also changed Web 3.0 so quickly was due to
cryptographically proven. It is added the way people work with, assess experience. Governments had
to a non-fungible token (NFT), which and select their government. Like been running pilot projects using
is a sort of digital filing cabinet of most other communities on the decentralized approaches since the
all your personal data, and securely decentralized net, government is run early 2020s. Organizations had been
stored on blockchains. That means by way of decentralized autonomous creating the technology and building
that individuals own and control their organizations (DAOs). They’re basically awareness. And concepts around
data — and they can trade it or sell it a set of rules coded into the digital digital ledgers and decentralized
as they see fit. ledger that serve as smart contracts. transactions were rapidly maturing.
When a government department
In doing so, we essentially or politician sets an agenda, they Had we not embraced digital ledger
decentralized trust. In the create a DAO to oversee it. Citizens technology back in the early 2020s,
past, people relied on central can check progress on the agenda at the Great Data Breach of 2028
organizations to tell us who we any time using the DAO. It’s referred may have destroyed society as we
could trust and who we should to as a decentralized representative know it. It didn’t. And we have the
not trust. Governments issued government. And many national decentralized net to thank.
Leading governments are helping to drive
sustainable living and redefining how people
live, work and play, all in harmony with nature
and powered 100 percent by renewable
energy.
Nadhmi Al-Nasr serves as the CEO for
NEOM and is well-known for his ability
to turning visions into realities. He is an
experienced engineer and leader with a
long-proven track record of successfully
managing and delivering ambitious
industrial projects for Saudi Aramco.
Al-Nasr obtained his degree in chemical
engineering from King Fahd University
of Petroleum and Minerals. Before
joining NEOM, he was Interim President
for King Abdullah University of Science
and Technology.
Nadhmi Al-Nasr
CEO of NEOM
What do cognitive cities look intelligent connected system and How were cognitive cities
like in 2030? with low latency connectivity. This able to accelerate their
helps us not only predict events
In 2030, cognitive cities, such as development over the last
before they happen, but also
NEOM, represent a new way of life, provides us with the data we need eight years?
combining cognitive technologies to effectively prevent and respond NEOM’s cognitive cities were
with ports and enterprise zones, to such occurrences. built to respond to the challenges
research and innovation centers, facing humanity yesterday, today
sport and entertainment venues, For example, in the years leading
up to 2030, fully integrated and tomorrow. Over the last eight
and tourist destinations. years, they created fresh solutions
technology has enabled cognitive
Cognitive cities are often global cities to better manage the without the constraints of legacy
hubs for creativity and innovation, spread of infectious diseases infrastructure. As a result, they were
with communities that are fully and to match supply and demand able to experiment and innovate,
digital and places where humans more proactively. In this way, paving the way to enhance living in
and machines are harmonized it has helped minimize societal the future.
to create a new future. This can challenges, such as virus What advice would you give
be achieved, in part, through a outbreaks, unemployment and
regulatory framework that enables governments and public
hunger.
growth and prosperity and attracts sector organizations in 2022
residents and companies to a NEOM’s cognitive city vision to best prepare themselves
place where livability, business and is of an intelligent connected
for success in 2030?
nature are equally important. system, where data gathered is
constantly used and analyzed. As our world today faces some of
Cognitive cities, like NEOM, will Artificial intelligence (AI) is woven the most pressing challenges and
be a template for sustainable into the entire fabric of cognitive critical issues in history, governments
living, redefining how people live, cities such as NEOM, providing and public sector organizations
work and play, all in harmony with seamless integration into every should come together and develop
nature and powered 100 percent by aspect of personal and commercial collaborative and innovative solutions
renewable energy. life. In many cases, cognitive city that allow us to leave our world in a
infrastructure now includes 5G better shape for future generations.
What do you mean by
technologies, AI, robotics and We should not just consider our
cognitive cities? human-machine fusion to assist own interests, but rather think of
In the 2020s, the world realized and improve every aspect of ourselves as the custodians of
that ‘smart’ cities were not enough personal and commercial life. the planet for our children and our
to mitigate the current and future children’s children.
Cognitive cities are constantly
challenges facing our world. We learning through interactions As seen with our own experience,
needed something more predictive with their citizens and adapt a real key to success is early
and more adaptive; we needed their behavior based on past collaboration through public-private
‘cognitive’ cities. experiences. These systems partnerships. NEOM’s fruitful
Cognitive cities are built to help are able to sense, understand partnerships with the private sector
mitigate the world’s most pressing and respond to changes in the have been crucial to NEOM being
challenges. They do so by using environment, predicting their own able to create innovative solutions for
a predictive model based on an needs and those of their citizens. the world.
Instead of expecting citizens to
chase the government for services,
government should chase the
citizen offering services.
Dr. Neeraj Mittal IAS

Principal Secretary of
Information Technology,
Government of Tamil Nadu,
India
Dr. Neeraj Mittal is an officer of the 1992 batch of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS)
and the Principal Secretary of Information Technology at the Government of Tamil Nadu in
India. He has extensive experience in policy formulation and execution in e-Governance,
Transport, Industrial Promotion, Petroleum & Natural Gas, Commerce & Industry,
Telecommunications and IT. His engagements include PaHal the world’s largest cash
transfer program in liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in India, and GiveItUp in the Ministry
of Petroleum & Natural Gas, which leveraged technology to simplify processes, improve
efficiency, convenience, participation and transparency in governance.
How has India — and the and hardware onto the cloud and Are you facing any unexpected
State of Tamil Nadu in virtual environment that extracted a challenges as you look ahead
better performance of any application
particular — moved so quickly from 2030?
state with the optimum use of
in their efforts to digitalize deployed resources with on-demand In the early 2020s, I suspect most
government services by 2030? availability. It took some time. We people thought that the digital divide
India embarked on its digitalization needed to overcome public sector would be eliminated by 2030. But the
journey with the launch of the Digital concerns about the security and digital divide is still here, and it has
India campaign. That brought a resilience of cloud technologies. But become much more complicated. It’s
fundamental transformation in citizen today, in 2030, everyone recognizes not really about access anymore —
service delivery. I would say that it the value that cloud has given us. mobile and internet penetration are
was a combination of three initiatives. There are some misgivings, but nearly universal. The real challenge
The first was the national Digital ID these will be resolved over time. today is digital literacy. Technology
program, which allowed every citizen is changing faster than most of us
Another ’unsung hero‘ of the
to access government services can comprehend. And now, with
transition has been blockchain,
seamlessly with a single digital quantum computing starting to
which has allowed government
identity. The second was the massive permeate every facet of technology,
departments to be more predictive
adoption of mobile as a channel to it’s more complicated than ever.
by creating smart contracts with a
government services. That changed focus on data sanity and integrity. The other challenge still troubling
the way government interacted Instead of expecting citizens to society is the use of personal
with citizens and helped create a chase the government for services, data. We’ve come a long way in
participative governance model. The today’s government can chase the creating and formalizing charters
third was the expansion of universal citizen offering services — and much and regulation around what data
banking. This gave the possibility to of that has been due to blockchain companies can use and how they
unlock a number of use cases for and smart contracts. can use it. Again, the technology is
the Digital ID and mobile programs changing quickly, which makes it
that would not have been possible Finally, I would cite the massive
difficult for regulation to keep up. But
before. The aim was to move from role that data technologies have
we’re making progress. Tamil Nadu
‘e-Government’ to ‘e-Governance’. played. Data, in and of itself, is not
has been a harbinger on regulating
a technology. But the intelligent
The combination of Digital ID, mobile the use of data and opening up
and automated tools — like artificial
adoption and universal banking possibilities to use it as a public good
intelligence and machine learning —
created a robust platform on which through the TN Data Policy 2021.
that have been applied to the data
public and private sector players unlocked all types of changes in the As we look ahead from 2030, the
could digitalize and develop all sorts way we function and how we deliver thing I’m most excited about is the
of products and services. And that services. Tamil Nadu’s cataract evolving dynamic gig economy. The
allowed us to rapidly accelerate and detection app e-Parvaai, as just pandemic forced companies to adopt
scale up our digital journey. one example, uses a smartphone a work from home model extensively,
camera to detect cataracts in the which has kick-started the gig
Were there any specific
user’s eyes with over 90 percent economy. Every person is a company
technologies that helped accuracy. It has the potential to that offers goods and services. It’s
drive that shift? eliminate blindness due to cataracts a very different environment and is
I would argue that the biggest in the national population. here to stay.
change over the past 10 years was
when we moved all of our software
Data is now the bread and
butter of everything we do.
Shahar Bracha led the Israeli
Government’s leading
technological authority
responsible for overseeing the
digital technologies divisions
across all ministries and agencies.
The Government Information
and Communications Technology
(ICT) Authority is responsible for
promoting cross-government
methodologies and standards,
and developing infrastructures,
systems and services to enhance
the efficiency of government
work and make government
information and services
accessible and convenient to the
public.
Shahar’s previous experience
ranges from software
development and IT infrastructure
to business development and
strategic planning.
Shahar was also the Vice-Chair
of the International Council
for Information Technology in
Government Administration (ICA).
Shahar Bracha
Former CEO, Israel Government
Information and Communications
Technology (ICT) Authority
It’s 2030. What do design a special program to help them allowed them to effectively reduce
government services in Israel achieve the most from their abilities. their transaction risks.
look like today? How did Israel make the Ultimately, however, I think it was
transition to digital by default the use of data that really drove
The Israeli Government is very
this transformation. Data is now
proactive today. In the past, we used so quickly?
the bread and butter of everything
to expect citizens or businesses
There were a number of factors that we do. Today, in 2030, artificial
to come to us when they needed
allowed us to move very quickly. intelligence and machine learning
licenses renewed or government
I think our Nimbus project, which are allowing us to look at data across
approvals. Now, we reach out to
we launched back in 2021, allowed new and legacy databases. They’re
them, asking only for the data we
government to really adopt cloud on providing our decision makers with
are missing in order to deliver the
a massive scale. Top government deep knowledge and insights. And
service they require. We have also
officials and bodies got behind they’re doing it proactively, not
become very proactive at service
it, supporting it with the right just waiting for us to ask the right
delivery. For example, when
resolutions to really drive adoption. questions. The data is providing
someone is born or someone dies,
In less than four years, we were off assumptions and suggestions we
we immediately contact the family
our old legacy systems, which gave hadn’t previously considered.
to ensure they are receiving all of
us the ability to deal with change
the benefits they are entitled to. What role do you see
very quickly and adopt new solutions
Government is also digital by at speed. government playing in
default. The pandemic of 2019–2022 driving the next wave of
Partnerships across government
drove digital adoption across all innovation?
were also critical. From the start
demographics and business sectors.
of the last decade, there was a In Israel, the government has not
The vast majority of services and
growing recognition that we needed been the driver of innovation — it
users are now digital.
to pull down departmental silos. has been the industry and the
But that does not mean there are We brought different people from ecosystem. Our start-ups and
no physical services. There are still different ministries with different entrepreneurs are the locomotion
civil servants, public employees and responsibilities to the same of new technology and new fields
service centers. But service centers table. That allowed us to truly see of interest. And Israel has done well
are now very cross-governmental; everyone’s needs. And it helped by its start-up approach and culture
citizens go to one service center for us move quickly when decisions over the past decade.
all their government needs. There are needed to be made.
more kiosks and online stations to Looking out from 2030, I think our
The adoption of government digital main goal will be to continue to open
provide access to services. And there
IDs was also a great catalyst. At up government data — both in terms
are still phone lines where citizens and
first, these were only used to of the data itself and the application
businesses can talk to a person.
access government services. programming interfaces (APIs) we
The way we design and deliver But the resulting transformation deploy to support that interaction —
services has also changed. Take into a national digital ID solution so the private sector can continue
schools, for example. Today in 2030, was a major advantage to the to develop valuable government
we are using the data at our disposal economy. Once it was open to services that Israeli people and
to properly evaluate and assess small businesses, it enabled every businesses need going forward.
the learning requirements of each business owner to quickly verify
individual student. And then we who was using their services and
Today, in 2030, artificial
intelligence and machine
learning are allowing us to
look at data across new and
legacy databases. They’re
providing our decision
makers with deep knowledge
and insights and they're
doing it proactively.
Shahar Bracha
Former CEO, Israel
Government Information
and Communications
Technology (ICT) Authority
Maintaining a
high degree of
ethics is key to
trust. And trust
is foundational
to securing
the outcomes
government hopes
to achieve.
Stine Hegelund Bertelsen

Deputy Director General,
Danish Business Authority
It’s mid-summer of 2030. And I’m must continue to remain vigilant businesses understand what kind
sitting at one of the Danish Business about cyber security. I’m not of data government has, how they
Authority offices in Copenhagen, convinced that cyber security will plan to use it, where it is being used,
Denmark. What’s on my agenda ever come off our agenda. how it is being stored and how it can
right now? I see five big themes. be changed if needed. Maintaining a
The ramping up of high degree of ethics is key to trust.
The personalization of environmental reporting And trust is foundational to securing
digitalization for businesses the outcomes government hopes to
We reached some climate goals for
The first wave of personalization 2030. But we have bigger goals to achieve.
was targeted towards citizens. But achieve now. And much depends The application of artificial
now we are making great progress on businesses’ ability to measure,
intelligence (AI) to drive
in personalizing government report and manage their carbon
services to business users. It has and environmental, social and decision-making
not been easy — businesses come governance (ESG) data. Government In Denmark in particular, the
in all different types and sizes and and the European Union have set application of AI has been driven by
they often have different needs and some fairly stringent regulations for an aging demographic and pressure
priorities. We needed to spend a lot how reporting must be managed. on the workforce. That wave of AI
of time really thinking about the data Many businesses are ramping application drove a lot of efficiency in
and how we structure and transport up their reporting capabilities as the public sector and in businesses
it in ways that actually reach and a result — though some clearly across Denmark. Now the focus
deliver value to businesses. In 2030, see ESG and climate data as an is on applying AI to help the public
we’re continuing our work to make opportunity to define new business sector become smarter — using
government more accessible to models in the circular economy. algorithms to identify businesses
businesses. We made good progress on the at high risk of money laundering,
decarbonization agenda to 2030, for example, or to more accurately
The never-ending battle for but now the real journey is getting allocate tax spend and infrastructure
cyber security started and reporting will be at the development strategies. From 2030
The more we digitalize and the more core. onwards, the focus is on making AI
we rely on technology, the more we a tool of decision-making rather than
The continuously evolving
need to ensure we are managing just a tool of automation.
ethics debate
the security of the system and data. That’s what’s on my business
Denmark’s businesses have been Government has a lot of data about agenda. But my personal agenda for
fairly lucky to date. We’ve seen its citizens. And it has a lot of data this afternoon involves using virtual
individual attacks, but we’ve seen about individual businesses. It can reality (VR) to go skiing with friends.
strong defenses of our government be used to make citizens’ lives Or perhaps to visit a market in Sri
systems and data and, as a result, easier. But, in order to drive trust, Lanka …
we’ve been able to build significant it must be used transparently.
trust with our businesses. But we That means helping people and
For almost a decade, Stine Hegelund Bertelsen has worked on the digitalization
of Danish society. For example, she has previously worked on a national digital
post solution, where all citizens and businesses in Denmark had a digital mailbox.
Today, Stine’s main focus is how to make it easier to be a responsible business in
Denmark through digitalization and using new technologies (e.g. machine learning)
to secure a level playing field. Stine is currently Deputy Director General at the Danish
Business Authority in Denmark and highly engaged and interested in data ethics and
data management. Prior to this role, she worked at the Danish Agency for Digitization.
We made good progress
on the decarbonization
agenda to 2030, but
now the real journey
is getting started and
reporting will be at the
core.
Stine Hegelund Bertelsen
Deputy Director General,
Danish Business Authority
The journey
to digital
government
doesn’t start
with technology
decisions, it
starts with
the enabling
conditions.
Dr. Susana Cordeiro Guerra
Sector Manager, Institutions for
Development, Inter-American
Development Bank
Dr. Susana Cordeiro Guerra serves as the Manager of the Institutions for Development
Sector at the Inter-American Development Bank. Previously, Dr. Cordeiro Guerra led
Brazil’s National Statistical Agency from 2019 to 2021. In that capacity, she oversaw
production of the country’s official statistics and preparation for the decennial
census. During her tenure, she spearheaded reforms of the 12,000-person agency to
modernize the production of official statistics. Confronted by the COVID-19 pandemic,
Susana successfully led the agency's transition to a remote work platform, leveraging
partnerships and digital technologies to maintain statistical production and launched
key surveys to guide policymaking during the health emergency.
What’s the state of digital and Caribbean governments to seeking to further enhance
government in Latin America digitalize has been their enhanced citizen enablement in 2030?
state capacity.
and the Caribbean in 2030? There is lots on the agenda. But
The journey to digital government we’re seeing the main thrusts of
It’s clear that governments
doesn’t start with technology activity in four areas.
across the region understand the
decisions, it starts with the
importance of digitalizing their First, is enhancing digital literacy,
enabling conditions — things like
services. And we have seen the particularly among the most
developing and retaining human
enabling conditions for digital vulnerable groups and older
talent; putting an agency with the
government improve substantially population segments. Digital literacy
right empowerment, resources
over the past decade. unlocks access to opportunities
and talent in charge of the
Broadband coverage is nearly transformation journey; and setting like digital learning, virtual jobs and
universal. We have strong a regulatory framework that enables healthcare.
institutions overseeing the transformation. Second, is improving access by
digitalization journey. The agencies championing a multi-channel
In 2030, leading digital governments
leading the adoption of digital IDs approach to government that
are those that solve problems
are robust and well-functioning. includes digital and physical. For
through an inside-out, iterative
And governments are, for the most those that are already further along
and adaptive manner. These
part, doing well at prioritizing the the journey, this is more about
governments let the challenge drive
digitalization of those services most automating the routine processes
the solution, rather than approach
in demand. and services so citizens and public
a challenge with a preconceived
Of course, the region is very diverse notion and toolset. servants can focus on the value-
and market realities are different added technology enablement.
across countries. Some, like Have Latin American and
Third is driving adoption of digital
Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina, have Caribbean governments
IDs — a powerful enabling condition
entered 2030 with most of their managed to bridge the digital for the full digitalization of government
services now online. Others, like divide? services. But it does take some
Bolivia, Haiti, Honduras and Guyana, careful pre-work in terms of setting
are slightly further behind, but In terms of access to infrastructure,
the digital divide has been the regulatory framework and thinking
making great strides with the help of about things like digital identity, data
multilateral organizations. dramatically reduced. 5G is nearly
universal, 4G reaches remote protection and cybersecurity.
As a result, most people living in places, and every home and office is And fourth, they are focusing on
Latin America in 2030 now have linked to fixed broadband services. digital financial inclusion to ensure
access to better quality services, everyone can participate in the
at lower costs, and with greater But as much as the region has
advanced in creating the right access formal economy. This would allow
transparency and accountability citizens to get things like credit
from public sector providers. conditions, there is still a lot of
progress to be made in terms of the scoring mechanisms, buy insurance
Did technology catalyze this absorption and use of these tools or start up new businesses.
shift in Latin America and the and technologies within the most In 2030, I believe Latin America and
Caribbean? vulnerable communities and groups. the Caribbean are on the right track
to deliver a true digital government
Technology has certainly been What’s currently on the
experience. The 2030s will be an
important. But I would argue that agenda for Latin American exciting decade for the region.
what really allowed Latin American and Caribbean governments
Government
is empathetic,
proactive and
citizen-focused.
Taki Sarantakis
President, Canada School of
Public Service
Taki Sarantakis has been President of the Canada School of Public Service since July
2018, having previously served as Associate Secretary of the Treasury Board at the
Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. He spent most of his career at Infrastructure
Canada, including as Assistant Deputy Minister of Policy and Communications.
In 2011, he was awarded Canada’s Public Service Award of Excellence in Public Policy,
and in 2013 he was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
It’s the year 2030 and a lot What changed was the expectations sources of valuable information
has changed in the last of citizens themselves. Private that kept expanding. Government
company service providers were had a choice of either drowning in it
decade. What’s different
delivering exceptional customer or finding ways to use that data to
about the way government experiences. And government wasn’t make society better.
serves citizens in 2030? keeping up. People would stand in
With new service models and
In 2030, people see government as line for hours in government offices
technologies, government started
an ally. It is focused on citizens. And while, on their phones, private
to prioritize the use of artificial
it is incredibly efficient and effective. companies were entertaining them
intelligence (AI) in service delivery.
with personalized video content. The
Just 10 years ago, citizen They started to really focus on
juxtaposition became increasingly
interactions with government integrating their data and processes,
clear. And citizens became
tended to be overly complex. Back allowing data-informed decisions
increasingly disillusioned with
then, when a citizen wanted to to be made. And they moved
government capabilities and focus.
change their name due to marriage quickly to create smart, efficient
or other life changes, it would Did the great digital leap of and effective platforms. Those
require multiple physical visits the early 2020s help? actions really allowed governments
to multiple different government to start focusing their resources
There were really three big trends and their processes on the citizens
departments — motor vehicles, tax,
that emerged for government in the themselves.
land registries, passport offices and
early part of the decade. The first
so on. And how did government
was the Internet of Things (IoT).
Now, in 2030, government is much Government started to realize they empower their workforce
more empathetic, proactive and could be collecting much more data to move into this citizen-
citizen-focused. When a citizen automatically, and that data could focused world?
notifies government about a name be allowing them to provide much
change today, government springs better services to their citizens. The Ultimately, I think it was
into action, making the relevant IoT essentially allowed government government’s focus on their core
changes across all departments and to automate data collection. values that enabled the workforce
updating files and aligning records. to transform. Your values are your
The second was predictive values — they don’t change. And if
Government will even offer to
analytics. It really came of age in the you are following the right values,
work with your private providers to
2020s. And it allowed governments you can execute them in a number
authenticate the name change.
to not only predict the needs of of different ways.
What catalyzed that change? citizens, but to use those predictions
in future planning. Predictive Government also made sure that
I think government realized they analytics allowed governments to employees were given the tools they
had been working in service of become much more citizen-focused needed to achieve their goals — not
the system rather than in service and much more proactive in the way just new technologies, but also new
of citizens. In reality, the data they they interacted with and served capabilities and skill sets. Once
were collecting, the processes they their citizens. people had the right tools and were
were adhering to and the services focusing on the core values of the
they provided all existed to keep Underpinning all of this was the organization, becoming more citizen-
the system fed and happy. It wasn’t data revolution of the early 2020s. centric was less of a disruption
necessarily what was best or most It wasn’t just the amount of data and more of an opportunity for
convenient for the citizens. being generated, but the potential government workers.
Space data is giving
society a level of
control over their
day-to-day actions
that simply wasn’t
possible with existing
ground-based
infrastructure.
Dr. Tanya Harrison

Director of Strategic
Science Initiatives, Planet Labs PBC
Dr. Tanya Harrison is the Director of Strategic Science Initiatives at Planet Labs PBC,
where she leads strategic partnerships, messaging, and engagement with the global
research community. Before Planet Labs, she worked in science and mission operations
for multiple NASA missions over the course of the last 13 years. Tanya holds a PhD in
Geology with a Specialization in Planetary Science and Exploration from the University
of Western Ontario, a Masters in Earth and Environmental Science from Wesleyan
University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Astronomy and Physics from the
University of Washington.
The way people interact deforestation rates. Individual on technologies like optical
with our planet has changed farmers are using space data to help communications, which allow us
adapt their crop allocations based to get much more data back from
significantly in the years
on changing weather patterns. space at much higher speeds. And
leading up to 2030. The Space data is giving society a we’ve built more ground stations
way we interact with space level of control over their day-to- to transmit that data. We’ve scaled
has, perhaps, changed day actions that simply wasn’t up the development of CubeSats
even more. What has been possible with existing ground- and SmallSats using commercial
the biggest change in our based infrastructure. And now, by off-the-shelf components, thereby
combining space data with streams driving down costs. With this
relationship with space?
of other data, we’re seeing all sorts massive increase in volume and
There’s been a lot of technological of amazing new use cases emerge. speed of data, we’ve also seen
innovation and many new and great innovation around the use
exciting missions. But what really Have governments become of artificial intelligence (AI) and
made space more interesting overly reliant on commercial machine learning. That’s what
and valuable to people in 2030 providers and foreign allows us to focus on the anomalies
was when we finally started programs? and the insights which, ultimately,
democratizing space data by hosting are what really matter.
it natively in the cloud supported No. There is certainly a lot of sharing
by user-friendly and accessible of data and collaboration in all sorts Does the average citizen
platforms to analyze it. Two things of spheres, but the reality is that the understand the relationship
happened. First, it allowed policy costs and complexities of accessing between space and their life
makers to make much more space have fallen tremendously.
on earth?
informed and dynamic decisions It’s now quite viable for a country
based on real observations we’re to build their own satellite, launch We’re still working on that.
making from space. Secondly, it it on a commercial rocket and People have become much more
put space data and insights into start collecting their own earth accustomed to viewing satellite
the hands of everyday people, observation data. Some markets imagery as part of their news,
essentially democratizing the have used this approach as a way to weather and entertainment. And
insights that space data provides. catalyze their own space economy with data now more accessible
ecosystems that are now generating through the cloud and more
How exactly is that jobs and innovation within their valuable thanks to easy-to-
information being used in borders. And space programs use analytics platforms, we’re
2030? remain a matter of national pride for seeing the use cases for more
many markets. So, in 2030, most sophisticated applications of space
The most obvious application has national governments have some data expand — in agriculture and
been in our efforts — collective sort of space program underway. forestry, for example — and that’s
and individual — to mitigate and driving growing rates of literacy
adapt to climate change. Municipal You mentioned technological and awareness. But, even in
governments, for example, use innovation. How has space 2030, I think we still need to work
space data to assess air quality technology evolved over the harder to bring the space domain
in locations that lack other past decade? into schools so that students
measurement devices. National start to understand the value,
governments are using space Space technology has become and the opportunities, that space
data to monitor forestry and much more efficient, scaled represents.
and powerful. We’ve innovated
Dr. Thomas Zacharia,
Director of Oak Ridge
National Laboratory (ORNL),
leads more than 5,800 staff
in applying an exceptionally
broad set of core capabilities
to help solve today’s most
compelling problems in
science and technology.
Thomas manages an
annual budget of more than
US$2.4 billion while guiding
ORNL’s signature strengths
in advanced materials,
biology and environmental
science, high-performance
computing, neutron
science, national security,
and nuclear science and
technology to deliver
mission outcomes for the
US Department of Energy
and other sponsors.
Dr. Thomas
Zacharia
Laboratory Director,
Oak Ridge National
Laboratory Supercomputers allowed us
to create a better world.
They may not be as ‘super’ by 2030 fintech companies revolutionized Autonomous vehicles needed
standards, but the supercomputers the financial system. Biotech repairing. AI-driven tractors needed
commissioned in 2022 were the start-ups cured diseases. Space overseeing. Smart appliances,
catalysts that brought government, companies opened new frontiers. smart homes and smart cities
society and technology together. made citizens more comfortable
Data quickly became integrated
with technology and encouraged
I was leading ORNL when the into virtually every government
greater digital education and broader
Frontier exascale supercomputer service and process. Regulators
capabilities.
was commissioned. It was one in a used digital twins to quickly review
long line of accessible and powerful and license building plans and specs The issue of trust has been a harder
supercomputers that was part of on everything from new sewer nut to crack. Trust in technology
opening computing to all. systems to nuclear reactors. Social often correlates with how it’s being
services organizations like the US used, how it’s developed and how
Around the same time as Frontier’s
Department of Veterans Affairs it’s consumed. And, as the interplay
arrival, governments started to
used supercomputers to analyze the between advanced technologies
develop a more clear-eyed view of
millions of records at their disposal and the way human beings live,
data integration and availability. Over
to provide users with tailored and work and play became more central
the next few years, government
targeted services. Healthcare to people’s lives, great opportunities
data and business data were
providers used them to stamp and great risks were discovered.
opened up and integrated. A wave
out fraud and create new patient By moving quickly to appropriately
of innovation and insights followed.
pathways. understand, manage and mitigate
It was the combination of those risks, governments have
supercomputing power and Talent, trust and tech largely succeeded in building citizen
integrated data that united Perhaps most importantly, we have trust in data and technology.
government, society and largely been able to solve the two
technology. Supercomputers The opportunity of 2030
big enabling challenges of today —
allowed governments and the great capability transformation A new decade is in sight and when
companies to peek into the future. and the issue of trust. The capability I look back at the lessons learned
They accelerated edge applications gap — particularly for digital skills — since 2022, I am excited to see
into markets. They enabled the was overcome by the development government, society and technology
public sector to see important of more user-friendly technologies come together to create a much
correlations in data, unlocking and a greater recognition that data better future for society at large.
massive transformational insights. scientists only need a two-year
And I would argue that exascale
certificate to create value. It doesn’t
Supercomputers to super computing was the catalyst that
take a PhD to push the frontier of
outcomes sparked many of the benefits seen
data science.
today. Supercomputers allowed us
Supercomputers led the way as we At the same time, the integration to peek into the future and using this
pushed ourselves to the edge of the of artificial intelligence (AI) into knowledge, create a better world.
intersection of capability and data. everyday consumer products and And that has allowed us to design
Economists unraveled long-standing services drove a wave of capability and influence the future in a very
complexities. development among citizens. positive way.
The greatest difference
in government across
Sub-Saharan Africa
is the shift towards
inclusivity and
consultation.
Tope Ogundipe
Founder and Director,
Techsocietal Consulting
Tope Ogundipe is the Founder/Director at Techsocietal Consulting, a social enterprise

specializing in technology policy and program management for social good. Tope works
with Social Development Direct (SDDirect) as a Regional Specialist for the Digital Access
Program, funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) of the UK
Government to help create more inclusive, safe and secure digital access for excluded
and underserved communities in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Indonesia and Brazil. Her
work also includes digital inclusion diagnostic and strategy development to bridge the
digital divide for underserved communities and people with disabilities in the context
of COVID-19, as well as research to understand the digital gender gap and the related
economic impacts.
Across Sub-Saharan Africa, the and suppliers. We work to ensure the issue of trust. Many countries
COVID-19 pandemic of the early gender identity considerations are came into the 2020s with a legacy
2020s accelerated the digitalization embedded into all government plans of distrust and skepticism. Citizens
of government services. and policies. But more must be done didn’t trust their governments with
Governments realized they needed as we look towards 2040. their data, which led to a wave
to pour greater investment into of data protection regulation and
Digital literacy was also a critical
technology solutions. At first, the legislation across the sub-continent,
challenge, both in terms of upskilling
focus was on key sectors — health, implemented and monitored by
the public sector and helping the
education and finance, for strong, independent institutions.
population adopt and adapt the
example — but the focus quickly
technologies being delivered. Inclusive and consultative
expanded to include areas like
Governments quickly recognized
transportation, industry and logistics. Perhaps the greatest difference in
that digital literacy was key to
The result was a massive increase economic growth, social cohesion government across Sub-Saharan
in the quality of life for people and the promotion of inclusivity. Africa is the shift towards inclusivity
across the region, particularly in Significant focus and investment and consultation. Take regulation,
terms of the provision of education, have been put into encouraging for example: in 2030, regulation is
access to healthcare and the digital skills across the population. created collaboratively with all parties
enhancement of socioeconomic involved right from the start. The days
opportunities. Governments and A safer, more trusted space of last-minute consultation periods are
citizens moved quickly to adapt to, over. Today, civil society, private sector
As more government services
and adopt, emerging technologies and policy stakeholders sit down
and more of the population moved
that unlocked safer, more efficient together to draft the policy and the
online, cyber security quickly
solutions that served the needs of supporting regulation and legislation.
became an issue that needed to
their populations. The broad impact be overcome — not just traditional As governments look beyond
has been tremendously positive, hacking and ransomware risks, but 2030 and think about the ongoing
although there have been some also things like misinformation and modernization of their services and
difficult challenges along the way. online harassment and violence. technologies, more partnership with
Government put lots of effort key stakeholders will be critical.
Leveling up
into working in partnership with Governments must avoid the
New technologies have improved technology firms and social media distraction of merely delivering new
access to previously marginalized platforms to raise awareness, and technologies and instead focus on
populations. However, in 2030, there they have put significant investment delivering technologies that actually
is still more to achieve around access into educating citizens about work for people — technologies that
and equality. We are allocating more cyber security. ensure the digital economy remains
resources towards women-centered fair and that support democracies
Related to these efforts,
activities. We’ve implemented that are open and sustainable.
government also had to address
quotas on government departments
Acknowledgments
Thank you to all the Voices who participated in this Voices on 2030 program for
sharing your insights and perspectives on the future of digital government.
In addition to all the Voices we interviewed, this report was very much a team effort around the world.
A special thank you to:
• Adib Kilzie • Jacob Hacker • Paul Low

• Adrienne Cooney • James Hurley • Peter Bannink
• Alison Jarabo • Jennifer Laffitte • Peter Schram
• Amanda Heather • Joseph Klimavicz • Peter Xing
• Amit Gupta-Chaudhary • Josh Kleiman • Pranya Yamin
• Andrew North • Laura Webb • Priyanka Sharma
• Anna Leon • Lauren Keating • Raj Cheema
• Armughan Ahmad • Lea Zugschwerdt • Robert Dwyer
• Axel Kurschat • Lindsey Keck • Robert Gilpin
• Bent Dalager • Liza Hull • Samer Abdallah
• Brijendra Kumar • Lorna Stark • Sanjay Pathak
• Carolyn Forest • Louise Marshall • Satyanarayan Ramamurthy
• Carsten Schneider • Mark Calem • Satya Sinha
• Claudia Endter • Matt Berry • Servinder Kaur
• David Bar • Matthew Barch • Shahbaz Haque
• Dawn Westerhout • Matthew Roberts • Sofia Lanfranconi
• Dean Grandy • Meg Downie • Stefan Hefter
• Dhruw Joshi • Michael Camerlengo • Stephanie Wan
• Drew Baillie • Michael Klubal • Tanvi Kansal
• Elias George • Michelle Carter • Tarmo Toiger
• Heather Elwell • Mike Bazett • Tony Evans
• Ismail Alani • Nicholas Fox • Torsten Kaiser
• Jacinta Hargan • Omar Jinini • Viral Chawda
Contacts
Brenda Walker Torsten Kaiser
Global Head of Government Head of Public Sector
KPMG International KPMG in Germany
bwalker@kpmg.com tkaiser@kpmg.com
Thomas Beyer Elias George

Global Head of Technology Partner and Head
Transformation for Infrastructure, Government
and Healthcare
Infrastructure, Government
and Healthcare KPMG in India
eliasgeorge@kpmg.com
KPMG International
tbeyer1@kpmg.com Ismail Daham Alani
Head
Roni Michael
Government and Public Sector
Global Head of Innovation
KPMG in Saudi Arabia
KPMG International
ialani@kpmg.com
ronimichael@kpmg.com
Nicholas Fox
Paul Low
Partner
National Leader
Head of Government
and Healthcare KPMG in the UK
KPMG Australia nicholas.fox@kpmg.co.uk
plow@kpmg.com.au Lorna Stark
Partner
Michael Camerlengo
National Sector Leader for Government
Head of Government
KPMG in the US
KPMG Asia Pacific
lstark@kpmg.com
mcamerlengo@kpmg.com.au
Michael Klubal
National Industry Leader
and Healthcare
KPMG in Canada
mklubal@kpmg.ca
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for KPMG audit clients and their affiliates or related entities.
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please visit home.kpmg/governance.
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Publication name: Voices on 2030: Digitalizing government
Publication number: 138224-G
Publication date: September 2022

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Predictions summary 07 Predictions for 2030 09

© 2022 Copyright owned by one or more of the KPMG International entities.

© 2022 Copyright owned by one or more of the KPMG International entities.

Some transformative pressures be one of the forces that shape

the way people

Low-code/no-code Progress on environmental, social

Citizen developers are Digital twins and virtual worlds

An infusion of digital natives Government investment into

Ashwini Bakshi led the Project Management Institute’s (a not-for-profit professional

Gerhard Hammerschmid is Professor of Public Management and Director of the Centre

Dr. Julia Glidden

Dr. Kate Cordell

Khoong Hock Yun

Lisa Hollins Lisa Hollins has been the Executive Director of UK

Dr. Neeraj Mittal IAS

Stine Hegelund Bertelsen

Dr. Tanya Harrison

Tope Ogundipe is the Founder/Director at Techsocietal Consulting, a social enterprise

• Adib Kilzie • Jacob Hacker • Paul Low

Thomas Beyer Elias George

Some or all of the services described herein may not be permissible

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Predictions summary 07 Predictions for 2030 09