From systems to ecosystems: Rethinking government service delivery in the Gulf

Countries in the Gulf region have outpaced their OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) peers on several global digital indices. The UAE now ranks 11th on the UN E-Government Development Index 2024, ahead of Japan, and Saudi Arabia has jumped to 6th place.  

The impact on service delivery on the ground has been significant. The Etimad portal in Saudi Arabia has processed 2 million contracts since its launch, while the UAE’s Digital Procurement Platform (DPP) completes 60% of awards in under six minutes.  

Yet, the average fulfillment time of a procurement contract might stretch to several weeks, resulting in a high drop-off rate after a contract is awarded. The time elapsed between click-to-award and award-to-outcome betrays a deeper pattern: portals optimized for transaction volume remain vertical, fragmented, and transactional. 

These metrics are the predictable output of legacy logic. The next leap, therefore, needs to be not in adding more e-services, but in rethinking how public services are orchestrated and delivered. Digital marketplaces and platform ecosystems-already live in RAKEZ and Etimad pilots-will deliver on the promises of speed, inclusion, and local value creation.

The marketplace mindset 

A marketplace is much more than a procurement tool; it is a policy instrument that quietly enforces strategic goals. 

From passing PDF checklists between desks, ministries now rely on a single digital rulebook for approvals. When a supplier in Dubai submits a bid, the system instantly weighs their In-Country Value (ICV) score, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) status, and past performance against the expectations, either clearing or flagging the bid before a human opens the file. 

Static workflows are transformed into dynamic orchestration using the seamless alignment of supply, demand, and national goals. Once extended into a platform ecosystem, ministries and private operators can co-deliver outcomes faster, at scale, and with complete visibility. 

A marketplace digitizes the procurement process with catalogues, workflows, and compliance engines. On the other hand, a platform ecosystem offers modular service delivery via APIs, shared data, and reusable digital rails (such as identity, payments, and analytics). Together, they help transform siloed public services portals into composable, outcome-based governance tools. 

Accountability becomes programmatic when suppliers are continuously measured on whether they deliver on time, within budget, and in a way that enhances local value-policy compliance becomes simply the way business is conducted. 

High-value use cases that go beyond procurement 

Marketplaces have already left the procurement lane. In RAKEZ, a startup that once waited six months for leasing, logistics, and utilities approvals, can now set up operations in five minutes after tapping into federal digital tools. Across borders, RCJY and SPARK have migrated their supplier ecosystems onto Etimad APIs, reducing SME onboarding from weeks to hours and integrating live IKTVA scoring into every contract. 

The same pattern repeats in mobility and transport. RTA Dubai exposes permit and fleet-compliance APIs to private operators, extending reach without adding staff. At the same time, TGA KSA publishes verified fleet listings that ride-hailing apps consume via the Nafath identity federation. 

In the construction and infrastructure sector, MoEI DPP’s expansion to infrastructure suppliers has reduced the supplier process time from 60 days to 6 minutes, with NEOM and ROSHN now integrating into the same PIF-aligned performance ledger.  

Tourism follows a similar script, with DET’s Expo-linked vendor marketplaces helping to digitally onboard suppliers, while Riyadh Season and Diriyah Gate utilize Etimad to expedite vendor setups. Education has followed suit, with ministries in the two countries matching SMEs with qualified trainers. Additionally, Saudi Arabian entities, such as TVTC, use Etimad data to make informed decisions about their grants. 

The push for public-private synergy

Governments no longer have to provide and operate everything on their own. With marketplaces, they can merely act as coordinators. Marketplaces enable governments to contract while orchestrating policies by opening up modular infrastructure that private companies can plug into, as long as they meet established standards and metrics.

For example, SMEs in RAKEZ receive immediate financing approvals from fintechs using real-time ICV data from government APIs, eliminating weeks of paperwork. A logistics company operating under Riyadh Season utilizes Etimad identity systems to manage staffing, vehicles, and catering, all with compliance built in.

Such collaboration drives scale-onboarding SMEs in minutes instead of months -and percolates new ideas around new possibilities, such as leveraging AI to determine the best routes using RTA's open data. It also shares the success, from delivery targets to local credits, on shared dashboards. Monitoring moves from elaborate annual check-ins to coding policy in real time.

The real transformation with a platform for public value 

Switching to these ecosystems involves more than just technology; it requires a comprehensive reimagining of the relationship between control, delivery, and accountability. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have the best possible scenario when it comes to ecosystems: firm centralized timelines, robust digital infrastructures, clear vision targets, and digital rails already in place.

• Etimad's AI chatbot addresses procurement questions in simple language, from start to finish.
• TDRA’s digital infrastructure offers connectivity to government bodies through over 1,000 APIs. 

Turning these into ecosystems minimizes red tape, provides pathways for more players, and enables responsive governance where rules are updated in real-time, not via memos. The result is a governance model where public outcomes are co-created, measured, and continuously improved. The rails are live, and the next decade belongs to ministries that choose to extend them.