Transforming Public Services in the Middle East: A Service Design–Led Approach

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Digital transformation of government services – driven by a young, connected, and increasingly vocal population – is common today. The trend is particularly noticeable in the Middle East, where ambitious national visions are accelerating the transition toward citizen-centric digital ecosystems.

With the public sector driving technology investments to enhance service delivery, the Middle East information and communications technology (ICT) market is expected to reach $95.05 billion by 2025 from $84.23 billion in 2020 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.4%.

Citizens and residents in the region are growing accustomed to on-demand, mobile-first, multilingual, and personalized services. From accessing healthcare and education to setting up businesses or renewing licenses, users demand digital experiences that are intuitive, inclusive, intelligent and that seamlessly integrate into the pace and complexity of their lives. 

This rising expectation is transforming how governments approach service delivery. As Moussalam Dalati, General Manager for France, Middle East, and Africa at Liferay, points out, the pressure on governments is as much about mindset as it is about tools: “The public sector must think more like service designers and less like administrators and that means rethinking digital platforms from the ground up.”

Citizen Expectations Are Redefining Digital Service Delivery

“The demands of a young, digital-first population, coupled with a growing and diverse expatriate community, are pushing governments in the Middle East to rethink how digital services are delivered,” says Dalati. In such a dynamic environment, providing easily accessible, understandable, and seamless digital services is essential to meet expectations and also support inclusive, connected digital societies.

To ensure this, governments are moving beyond siloed services to integrated digital ecosystems designed around citizens’ needs. Initiatives such as UAE Pass represent this trajectory, offering secure, unified access to government and private sector services.

“Mobile-first, always-on, and secure platforms are becoming non-negotiable,” Dalati notes. In response, digital public sector platforms are evolving into AI-powered, data-driven environments, backed by robust governance and transparency.

Enabling Scalable Digital Experiences Across Public Services

Liferay’s Digital Experience Platform (DXP) is helping governments develop, deploy, and scale these digital experiences across multiple channels. Supporting G2C, G2G, B2B, and B2C models, Liferay DXP’s cloud-native architecture and low-code capabilities allow rapid development without disrupting legacy systems.

Built for multilingual contexts, its integration capabilities with translation tools such as Google Cloud Translation, Amazon Translate, Microsoft Translator, and DeepL is particularly suited to the Middle East’s demographic complexity. “Effective multilingual digital delivery is critical in this region — and it’s an area where Liferay adds tangible value,” says Dalati.

Across the region, Liferay powers several categories of government platforms:

• Citizen portals: Secure platforms for delivering personalized experiences to citizens through a customer-centric approach, simplifying access to services and centralizing resources.
• Employee portals: To foster speedy communication and information sharing across departments and teams by automating processes with a unified approach to tools, content, and data, leading to improved productivity.
• Public websites: Design and create modern and appealing websites to meet evolving citizen requirements, delivering seamless and elevated digital experiences that boost user engagement.

These solutions are designed to improve the operational efficiency of government institutions and the overall citizen experience.

Four Considerations for Government Digital Transformation

For governments navigating modernization across ministries, municipalities, and federal departments, the underlying digital infrastructure must balance innovation with institutional realities. Dalati outlines four guiding principles shaping this shift:

1. Prioritizing Sovereignty Through Open-Source Foundations
   Open-source platforms are gaining traction in the public sector for their transparency and adaptability. They allow governments to retain control over their digital infrastructure, aligning with growing regional priorities around digital sovereignty and regulatory compliance without compromising enterprise-grade security or scale.
2. Designing for Agility, Not Just Scale
   A modular platform approach offers practical benefits for public institutions managing complex workflows across departments. By supporting phased rollouts and tailored configurations, governments can deploy new services quickly, adapt to evolving user needs, and avoid the burden of full-system overhauls.
3. Making Legacy Systems Work Smarter
   Few governments have the luxury of building entirely new systems. Inclusive platform frameworks that bridge legacy infrastructure with modern digital experiences, including AI-powered features like personalization and intelligent search, enable incremental innovation without disruption.
4. Ensuring Cloud-Native Flexibility With Built-In Autonomy
   As more governments adopt cloud-native strategies, the need for platforms that support local compliance and data residency is paramount. Models that offer flexible licensing and allow institutions to integrate their preferred AI tools (“Bring Your Own AI”) are emerging as key enablers of resilience and customization in highly regulated environments.

Turning Strategy into Impact

Across the Middle East, government entities are translating digital strategies into tangible impact by building platforms  prioritizing accessibility, scalability, and user experience. While each country has its own policy imperatives and regulatory considerations, a common thread  is the need for cloud-native, secure, and flexible digital ecosystems that serve citizens and residents seamlessly.

Technology partners play a key role in enabling this transformation. Liferay, for example, supports a growing number of public sector organizations across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and beyond with its open, modular Digital Experience Platform (DXP). By focusing on agility, integration, and long-term value creation, the platform has helped governments modernize service delivery without abandoning existing infrastructure.

The availability of Liferay DXP on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait has further accelerated this shift. Cloud-native deployments ensure compliance with local data residency regulations — a critical requirement for sensitive sectors — while reducing IT complexity, shortening time-to-market, and enhancing operational agility.

In the UAE, the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ) is leveraging Liferay’s platform to unify digital experiences across its various free zones. The solution enables scalability, self-management, and modular growth, supporting DIEZ’s ambition to offer a fully integrated, future-ready business environment.

Likewise, Digital Dubai’s Invest in Dubai initiative, developed in collaboration with over 20 government entities, exemplifies the value of a unified platform approach. The portal simplifies business setup and investment processes across the emirate, consolidating fragmented services into a single, intuitive user journey.

In Abu Dhabi, the Statistics Centre reimagined its internal and public-facing digital services using Liferay DXP. The transformation improved efficiency, consistency, and accessibility — aligning with the capital’s broader digital governance agenda.

These examples signal a larger regional trend: public sector digital transformation is about building interoperable, citizen-focused ecosystems that evolve with societal needs, and platforms like Liferay’s are becoming an enabling layer in this journey.

Foundations for Resilience in a Time of Change

As Middle Eastern governments navigate a shifting landscape, Dalati emphasizes a few foundational principles for building resilient digital ecosystems: “Governments must adopt citizen-centric design, supported by modular, API-first platforms that are cloud-ready.”

Open standards and open-source technologies, he adds, are essential for fostering long-term innovation and interoperability, while also reducing dependency on specific vendors. “Robust analytics and data-driven decision-making are key to ensuring services evolve with citizen needs,” Dalati says.

Security and compliance remain cornerstones of public trust. However, the ability to continuously innovate without being constrained by rigid systems or outdated infrastructure is what will define successful digital governments in the years ahead.