Connected eGovernment (CONvErGE) is one of the largest digital investments ever implemented in the Malta Public Service. In 2014, the Government of Malta set out Malta’s vision for a digitally enabled nation, taking ICT policy development and implementation to a higher level to meet the expectations of all – the citizen, businesses and the government itself. The vision was sustained by the need for supportive regulation and legislation, sound ICT infrastructure, and the skilling, reskilling and upskilling of human resources. The Digital Malta strategy was designed to enable development in the areas of the economy, employment, industry and small businesses, and foresaw how it can further enable national development to empower citizens and transform government. It promoted the benefits of ICT for better education, stronger businesses, efficient government, sustainable economic growth and much more.
To realise the opportunities set out by the Digital Malta strategy and to enable digital investment in line with other sectorial policies established across various policy areas, in 2015 the Public Service in Malta designed and developed a digitisation programme aimed at developing a number of eService applications in the areas of government-to-government (G2G), government-to-business (G2B) and government-to-citizen (G2C). The eService applications (referred to as ‘vertical’ components) addressed specific policy areas across the government such as health, education, social security and justice among others, while several underlying shared enabling services (referred to as ‘horizontal’ components) were developed to lay down the foundations for further digital transformation across the public service.