With the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world witnessed great social, economic, environmental, and medical changes. One of the places that suffered most from the shadows of COVID-19 is of course Palestine, where the pandemic imposed radical and rather severe changes. The many challenges that arose in front of Palestinians required them to respond quickly at many levels to lessen the effects, solve as many problems as they can, and find alternatives for whatever the pandemic deterred.

From this standpoint, iPark.Land in cooperation with Business and Technology Incubator (BTI) launched a series of online webinars and invited several experts and specialists working in different sectors. One of these webinars discussed digital transformation in Palestine, its tools and challenges, and the most important problems that increased greatly in this field after the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Gaza Strip. The participants in this webinar were information technology experts from the private, government, and academic sectors. It was held via Zoom and streamed live on BTI’s Facebook page. The two main themes that were discussed are as follows:

1. Information technology and creativity in the face of the pandemic.
2. The Information Technology Industry in Palestine; where to after the pandemic?

The most important points mentioned, and that can be seen as recommendations too are:

1. The need for a clear strategy and organized plan to follow up on digital transformation.
2. The need for policies related to establishing legal intellectual property frameworks, fair competition frameworks, and others.
3. The need for national strategies for incubators.
4. Working on improving the infrastructure to accommodate data, the most important of which is providing 4G.
5. Depending more on the private sector and information technology companies, so that the public sector gives them the opportunity to participate in developing solutions to the pandemic’s challenges.
6. Providing databases for all sectors; big data is the new oil.
7. Working on applying modern technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Big Data, and others, so that transactions are completed faster. These technologies can also contribute to reducing the cost of transactions.
8. Activating the role of scientific research and providing the appropriate climate to achieve integration and harmony between different sectors to find solutions for the various challenges.
9. Establish laws to protect the information, and raise awareness of the importance of digital privacy and information to individuals and institutions.
10. Investing more in the information technology industry and funding it.