In the post-COVID era, digital government initiatives – leveraging technologies to provide government services in a more transparent, efficient, and resilient manner – can help unlock an urgently needed economic rebound. This is especially true in investment-driven sectors, such as construction, which create outsized, positive second-order economic impacts, including inclusive job creation and expanded tax revenue. COVID-19 has highlighted the need to accelerate our use of digital tools to improve the issuance of government-mandated licenses and permits. Current reliance on non-resilient, in-person-only, paper-based processes—and the delays these processes often cause—are paralyzing the ability of "shovel ready" projects to launch. Digital tools can solve this problem, boosting regional economic recovery, job creation, and cross-sector digital economy efforts.

This project would provide APEC economies with immediate, actionable suggestions of implementable digital government best practices, starting with a focus on digitalizing licensing and permitting in the construction sector, while providing the groundwork for additional capacity building efforts that can promote the implementation of such measures.