The National Digital Program of the Government of Israel

Advance the Transition to Digital Products that Produce Economic Savings

In the digital era, new technologies are a quality and available substitute for traditional products and services. Also, new digital products (or integration of digital adaptations into existing products) enable improvement of product quality, make them accessible, easy and simple to use, and hold significant potential for considerable time and money savings.​

The National Initiative will promote the transition to the use of digital products that lead to financial savings, such as a remote system of free tutoring lessons that can reduce household expenses for private lessons.

These lessons, that are provided through a special website with a simple and convenient user interface, will enable pupils from the periphery to enjoy quality private lessons free of change from teachers located in central Israel. In the next stage, the system is expected to expand to tens of thousands of pupils in the education system. Furthermore, the digital book project will be expanded within the framework of the National Initiative, offering books that are inexpensive and provide a quality substitute for textbooks - a significant expense for families in Israel that currently stands at about 500 NIS per child. Digital books also eliminate the need for pupils to carry heavy books to school[33].

Online English Courses for Students
(led by the Open University)

 The online initiative is planned to include packages of digital courses, in line with mandatory English courses for students in higher education institutions, in order to receive an exemption from English courses. The courses will be developed on the national platform for online learning. These online English courses and receiving an exemption will significantly ease the burden on students and enable them to save on expenses.

Encourage Informed Consumption Using Digital Tools

Increasing transparency about product and service prices, while providing consumers access to information through digital means, fosters competition in the market and enables consumers to control their expenses optimally. 

Thus, government and private databases can be harnessed to make information about product and service prices accessible by means of dedicated applications and software. In the food product field, for example, there is currently an open government database that displays the price of products sold in the various food chains. Through dedicated services, the public can compare food prices conveniently, and choose the cheapest and most suitable option.

As part of the National Initiative, informed consumption will be promoted and tools for comparing prices in Israel in a variety of areas will be developed. Furthermore, opening government databases of product and service prices will be advanced to enable entrepreneurs from the private and non-profit sectors to develop new comparison products based on these databases. Also, promoting e-commerce will increase public exposure to various products and improve competition, contributing to informed consumption and cost savings.

Competition for Applications to Lower the Cost of Living 
(led by the Ministry of Economy and Industry and by the National Authority for Technological Innovation)

The Ministry of Economy and Industry initiated a competition for developing applications that can lower the cost of living, focused on two topics: applications for comparing food prices (based on the database of the price of products sold in food chains), and applications that help informed consumption that will lead to economic savings.
The aim of the competition is to increase transparency of information to the public in innovative ways, to foster price comparison and informed consumption, to encourage competition in the market and to lower the cost of living.

 

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