Bahrain shines as GCC eGovt summit concludes

Manama

The fourth edition of the GCC eGovernment Award, Conference and Exhibition 2015 – under the patronage of Prime Minister HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al-Khalifa – concluded yesterday with 750 participants from all over the GCC countries.

Day two of the event embraced seven plenary sessions alongside a panel discussion of the six GCC eGovernment Heads, moderated by Dr  Zakareya Ahmed Al Khaja from Bahrain’s Informatics and eGovernment Authority.

A number of topics, related to the eGovernment’s role in the national economy, were covered during the discussion; highlighting how the public has built its confidence in eGovernment and the extent of the eGovernment’s steadiness in competing on an international level thanks to its future projects. 

During the discussion, UAE’s Information and eGovernment Sector Acting Deputy Director General Salem Al Hosani stated that even though the current situation is directed towards reducing costs, such reduction should not be on the expense of providing services to citizens; instead, services must remain on very high standards.

Mohammed Ali Al Qaed, from Bahrain’s Informatics and eGovernment Authority, confirmed the importance of working on developing the governmental services through “Business Process Re-Engineering” and operations of governmental entities, in order to effectively reduce costs. Dr AbdulRahman bin Sulaiman Al-Eraini, Saudi Arabia’s Advisor to the Minister of Communications and IT and Director General of eGovernment Program, stressed on the importance of investing in IT in line with other fields such as health and education sectors.

Oman’s Information Technology Authority CEO Dr Salim Al Ruzaiqi stated that each GCC country own comprehensive strategies, that not only focus on providing online services but also consider the awareness area and citizen’s capacity building. Qatar’s ICT Government Programs Assistant Undersecretary Hassan AlSayed stated that in order to obtain the citizen’s trust in utilizing the eGovernment services, it is required to eliminate the traditional methods. Kuwait’s Central Agency for Information Technology Deputy General Director Majida Al Naqeeb highlighted the methods utilized in Kuwait to gain citizens’ trust in online services through allowing easy obtaining of information and payment services.

Second day of the event commenced with the ‘Big Data’ session presented by Gartner Inc. Research Director Joao Tapadinhas, followed by UAE’s ‘Smart Cloud’ session, Qatar’s ‘Discover the Benefits of Government Shared Services’, Oman’s ‘Electronic Authentication Use through Mobiles’, ‘Big Data between the Notion and Technique’ by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait’s ‘Online Social Loan’ session, and finally with Bahrain’s ‘Business Licensing Integrated System’ (BLIS).

At the event, The Industry, Commerce and Tourism Ministry’s BLIS won best e-Government service for business sector.  The Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism Zayed Al Zayani received the award during the opening ceremony.

Caption : Industry, Commerce and Tourism Ministry’s BLIS won best e-Government service for business sector