“Through the collaboration between Riyadh Municipality, Elm and IBM, we will be able to help the Saudi government reimagine and transform the way in which services are provided to citizens, residents, businesses, and visitors.”According to CCN, this is a part of a bigger project known as Vision 2030, a project established by Saudi Arabian royalty that aims to transform the countries economy. Ultimately, Vision 2030 wants to reduce the countries reliability on income via oil and thus wants to see Saudi Arabia become a hub for investment and for income via the private sector. According to CCN:
“The decision to integrate government services and transactions onto a blockchain is part of the broader Saudi Vision 2030 program, an initiative enacted by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in 2016. The “long-term” plan sees the country’s rulers making a “serious attempt” to transition the economy away from its overwhelming dependency on oil and the state through substantial investments in the private sector. The new blockchain endeavor is in accordance with Vision 2030’s directives, Al Riyadh secretary Tariq bin Abdul said, underlining decentralized blockchain tech as the chosen solution to improve municipal operations and services to citizens.”See the full article for yourself, here. From the outset, this project may well see Riyadh spearhead a new blockchain revolution within governmental services. Once this is in place, other nearby cities will follow suit until the rest of the country is able to catch up with this forward and innovative technology. Moreover, with IBM contributing to Saudi Arabia’s new vision for 2030, lives of the local people could be set to change for the better, thanks to blockchain technology.