Digital Transformation… When Management Makes the Difference

Jordan today offers a model worthy of attention, given the scale of the institutions it has successfully digitized and transformed into practical services that save time and effort, improve performance, and demonstrate that capable leadership is the true starting point for any successful transformation.

The achievements of the Income and Sales Tax Department, the Drivers and Vehicles Licensing Department, and the Civil Status and Passports Department go beyond simply digitizing services.

These institutions have fundamentally redesigned their procedures, enabling citizens to complete dozens of services within minutes rather than waiting days or even weeks.

The numbers show that digital transformation is no longer limited in scope.

The government has digitized 85.5% of its targeted public services, with plans to reach 100% of all services suitable for digitization by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, more than 2.88 million digital identities have been activated through the Sanad application, reflecting growing public confidence in the platform, particularly after introducing features such as self-activation, mobile number updates, password resets, offline access to digital documents, electronic passports, vehicle registration renewals, digital payments, and electronic signatures.

More importantly, digital transformation has not eliminated the need for in-person services it has reorganized them. Jordan’s network of 15 comprehensive government service centers now provides hundreds of services in cooperation with dozens of public institutions.

These centers have achieved a 98% customer satisfaction rate, reflecting the success of a one-stop-shop model that unifies procedures and focuses on the citizen’s overall experience.

However, these successes raise an important question: Why aren’t all government institutions progressing at the same pace?

This is where digital transformation intersects with the goals of Jordan’s Economic Modernization Vision and Public Sector Modernization Roadmap.

Improving economic competitiveness and attracting investment are difficult when a single transaction still requires dealing with multiple agencies or repeatedly submitting the same documents.

Digital integration is what transforms isolated services into a unified government ecosystem.

In many cases, the challenge is not funding, legislation, or technology it is leadership.

The Jordan Customs Department, for example, successfully completed its electronic customs data exchange platform and processed more than 1.4 million customs declarations in just two months after implementing the project in five phases.

The system allows traders and customs brokers to track their transactions in real time through the unified government portal and the Sanad platform.
Meanwhile, in the water sector, a €765,000 digital transformation roadmap is being developed, covering sustainability, energy management, governance, and cybersecurity.

These examples demonstrate that digital transformation is not simply about purchasing new software.

It is about redesigning workflows, managing organizational change, and overcoming resistance to outdated procedures.

It is also an economic tool that reduces operating costs, accelerates investment processes, minimizes direct interactions, enhances transparency, and limits opportunities for favoritism and corruption.

Jordan’s advancement to 49th globally and second regionally in the 2026 Responsible AI Index, with a score of 40.46 compared with the regional average of 32.07, and its ranking ahead of 64% of the 135 countries and territories assessed, further demonstrates that the country’s digital infrastructure is ready to move into a more advanced phase.

The challenge now is ensuring that these successful initiatives do not remain isolated examples but become the benchmark for evaluating government institutions and their leadership.

Digital transformation is ultimately a project of modern governance.

When management makes the difference, e-government becomes a reality that citizens and investors experience firsthand not merely an objective written into strategic plans.