Digital transformation of project management in rural development: a comparative experience of Russia and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Э. И. Ж.   Эльян; Ю. А. Лаамарти

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Э. И. Ж.  Эльян cover

Ю. А. Лаамарти

Project management is becoming a key institutional mechanism for implementing state programs of integrated rural development, yet the adoption of digital tools in this process remains fragmented and is rarely assessed in terms of the maturity of the management cycle as a whole. The purpose of the study is to develop and test a methodological approach to assessing the readiness of rural development project management for digital transformation, comparing institutional practices in Russia and Saudi Arabia, and to identify conditions under which digital project-management tools produce a sustainable socio-economic effect in rural areas. The methods include a systematization of Russian and international literature, comparative institutional analysis, construction of the Digital Project Management Maturity Index (DPMI) for rural development programs, correlation analysis between digital maturity and performance indicators, and a comparison of national digitalization strategies for 2019–2025. The empirical base covers program documents, statistical indicators of digital transformation in Russia’s agro-industrial complex, and open data on the Vision 2030 strategy in the Saudi agricultural sector. Digital maturity of project management is found to be unevenly distributed across functional blocks of the management cycle, with the highest returns where digital monitoring is combined with participatory mechanisms rather than applied as a purely technical upgrade. The scientific novelty lies in constructing a cross-country comparative index linking the maturity of digital project-management practices with tangible rural development outcomes. The practical significance consists in using the DPMI toolkit for benchmarking digitalization strategies and prioritizing investment in digital infrastructure for rural project management.

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