On November 7, 2024, OSMOS, a non-profit think-and-do tank based in Lithuania, held their first online knowledge exchange. It was attended by government representatives from Iraq, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Lithuania, and the Delegation of the EU to Iraq, as well as private and international organizations including iQ Group and the International Center for Migration Policy Development.

At the event, Zilvinas Svedkauskas, the Managing Director of OSMOS, said that in “the past year, supported by the EU, we have been working really hard on establishing a new mutually beneficial partnership with Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan, which are repositioning themselves as the regional ICT hub in the Middle East. We are engaged in a pilot exercise where we’re looking to advance the digital skills of a selected group of Iraqi youth and to build long-lasting institutional relations.”

Svedkauskas stated that, while working with Five One Labs in Erbil to upskill and match young talents with new work opportunities, they were also able to establish a dialogue between Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania and Sulaymaniyah Polytechnic University.

“I had the privilege of visiting Iraq twice this year. I’ve seen many parallels in the digital transformation trajectories that our countries are taking. Both had made the move away from a state dominated economy, both aim to leverage digital technologies for their future development, from the private to the public sector.”

“Data analytics and data science serve as a horizontal priority that goes throughout all the pillars of Digital Explorers - Iraq Edition. Therefore, we have selected a motivated group of young people around Iraq currently being trained by Turing College, a leading Lithuanian ed-tech start-up. They’re focusing on improving their skills in data analytics. The same goes for the higher education exchange. We’re working with the experts from both countries to review and set up a data science program at Sulaymaniyah Polytechnic University.”

Karolis Zemaitis, Lithuania’s Vice Minister of Economy and Innovation, underlined that “Lithuania, Iraq, and the Kurdistan Region have a lot to share in terms of dynamics, ambition to growth, and ambition for transformation.”

“Back in the 1990s, when Lithuania regained its independence, it had to create a whole infrastructure from scratch, especially when it comes to IT and digital infrastructure. We are one of the countries that built everything from the very beginning. After 34 years of independence, we are one of the most digitalized countries in the world. Approximately 95% of our public services are now online and almost 90% of our citizens are using digital services. And this is something that didn’t happen overnight. This is a journey that has been happening in Lithuania for the last 15 to 20 years.”

Read More: Kurdistan’s Leap into the Digital Age

The Ninth Cabinet of the KRG, led by Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, has also prioritized digital services. As part of its mission to shift the Kurdistan Region toward a cashless society, the KRG began digitizing the payroll process for its 1.2 million public sector employees in September 2023 as part of the MyAccount project by helping government workers register with local banks.

Zemaitis emphasized that “Lithuania is a good example to analyze because of the rapid transition that we had in recent decades.

“Lithuania is a relatively compact country. We have a population of 3 million. We have no natural resources, no oil, no gas, no diamonds or gold. Basically the only natural resource that we have is our human power and human minds. I think that was very clearly understood by everyone in Lithuania – the only thing that can bring us prosperity is what we are creating with our intellectual capacity.”

During the event, Hasan al-Khatib, Senior Advisor on Digital Transformation to the Prime Minister of Iraq, said there are two data centers currently under construction in Iraq and there are plans to open a third one in the Kurdistan Region pending the KRG’s approval.

Read More: The Digital Path to Political and Economic Autonomy

“Another initiative, known as the ‘Digital Academy,’ aims to build digital curricula for multiple levels and define the modules for each level, as well as establish the content of each set of lectures required for that subject, from basic to advanced digital literacy,” al-Khatib explained.

“The third initiative seeks to create industrial corridors around universities in Iraq and Kurdistan where new start-ups can emerge to steer innovation in various sectors of the economy,” he said. 

Lennart Deridder, Head of Cooperation at the Delegation of the EU to Iraq, highlighted that there are also opportunities for the exchange of students with Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. 

“In the context of Erasmus, we see potential to continue this partnership and to see Lithuania and Iraqi and Kurdistani partners build on the insights gained through the Digital Explorers project, and continue to work together toward shared goals.”

Savo Bakhtiar Rasoul, Managing Director for Ecosytem at Five One Labs – the co-implementing partner of Digital Explorers - Iraq Edition – underlined that the lessons learned from Lithuania will be invaluable in guiding these efforts in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. 

“I think Iraq and the Kurdistan Region face considerable challenges in data collection and analysis. These two capabilities are essential for informed policy-making and sustainable development, which I believe was confirmed by the speeches of the officials at the event. I think these challenges mainly stem from the outdated and incomplete data that we have available in Iraq, as well as our limited institutional capacity. However, I think a lot of comprehensive data collection systems exist in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.”

Rasoul also said their work with entrepreneurs “has increased awareness of the value of data, like the utility in business decision-making in general. Using this data, we have collaborated with both the KRG Prime Minister’s office and the Deputy Prime Minister’s office.”

“Luckily, a lot of law and policy has been amended in the KRG since 2018, which has led to smoother operations,” she added.

In 2022, the KRG passed a new rule that will make it cheaper for businesses to register and, in 2023, the KRG also launched an online portal to streamline and expedite the registration process for businesses. 

Svedkauskas told Kurdistan Chronicle on November 14 that the inspiration to put this workshop together came during his two previous work visits to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.

“Despite different digital maturity levels, seeing many parallels between the digital transformation pathways that Lithuania, Iraq and the Kurdistan Region share, we set the goal to move the bilateral dialogue to a more technical level. Since we are already training a selected group of young Iraqis in data analytics and are facilitating a dialogue between Sulaymaniyah Polytechnic University and Vytautas Magnus University on data science, public data governance was the next thematic area to tackle.” 

“In simple terms, the goal was to sensitize Lithuanian policymakers to their Iraqi counterparts’ ongoing needs in the design and delivery of digitally enabled public services and showcase the best practices of Lithuania’s State Data Agency and State Digital Solutions Agency. By identifying concrete policy areas where Lithuania, Iraq, and the Kurdistan Region can work together, we are making this partnership more sustainable and long-lasting.” 

“The field visit to Lithuania – which we are planning in early 2025 – will be the next step in this regard and will allow Iraqi and Kurdish experts to experience how Lithuania’s state agencies collect, analyze, and share data while attuning their operations to citizens’ needs,” he concluded.