Transformative leadership in Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority: Investing in talent, innovation, and the next generation

Abstract

Digital transformation is becoming a necessity for all organizations all over the world. The importance of digital transformation is not only applicable to the private sector but also extends to the public sector. Kuwait boasts the Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority (KDIPA), a pivotal entity entrusted with the mission of spearheading investment promotion across diverse sectors. More importantly, the focus has been recently on investing on digital transformation technologies where their statistics shows that 33% of their investment are in the emerging technologies. However, the success of KDIPA was not a mere chance or coincidence where it is really attributed to the transformative leadership that it has. It started to invest in projects that develop the talents and skills of Kuwaitis to create sustainable development and bring innovative technologies to the state of Kuwait. This chapter provides an overview of digital transformation and the role of KDIPA and its transformative leadership in attaining the Strategic Development Goals (SDGs) for a new Kuwait Vision of 2035.