Shaikh Nasser Mohammed Al Ahmad Al Sabah has deputized the Minister of Electricity and Water and Acting Minister of Communications and Information Engineer Salem Al-Uthayna to inaugurate the conference and deliver the opening speech.
The conference started with a documentary film covering the cultural, economical and technological development in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries followed by speech from Abdullatif Al-Sarei’ Director-General of the Central Agency For Information Technology, Kuwait.
After concluding the processes of categorizing participants and identifying the top five by the Jury Panel, the winners were announced and honored during the opening session. The eGovernment Authority portal has won an excellence award handed out to Mr. Mohammad Al Qaed the Chief Executive of the eGovernment Authority in recognition of services offered to the public. Also another award bagged by Bahrain for the Shura Council website, that won a similar award which was handed out to Dr. Ahmed Abdulla Naser, Assistance General Secretary for Parliament Affairs.
Regarding the eGoverment Award of this year, both the United Arab Emirates and Sultanate of Oman gained the greater share of the 2nd GCC Award 2011 whereas the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia won the 1st GCC Award which was held in Oman on December 2009.
The award aims at inspiring the government entities in the GCC countries to integrate and adopt information technology in various government transactions in government agencies to realize effective application of the eGovernment matrix which essentially maintains smooth, cost-effective and transparent transactions between the government and the users.
“The competition on this award has driven all the eGovernment bodies and government entities to improve their services provided to the stakeholders and launch unprecedented and differentiated programs and initiatives. These factors have a value added impact in developing the eServices which, in turn, will support and boost GCC shared eServices, to directly benefit citizens,” The eGovernment Authority CEO Al Qaed congratulated both UAE and Oman for winning the awards.
“This conference is one of the important milestones for the eGovernment systems in the GCC countries; organizing this event is considered as a continuation to the GCC countries’ efforts in supporting and improving joint eGoverment services across the GCC region”.
He highlighted the importance of organizing such events to ensure that GCC countries continuously reach innovative and new methods in transactions with citizens in order to maintain accessible, fast and convenient eServices which will save time and efforts.
Al Qaed stressed the necessity to reinforce linking the electronic services among the GCC countries to integrate a joint workflow through the execution of linking projects related to eServices, and this was a key recommendation of the 1st GCC Conference which was held in Muscat. Extensive work and coordination is currently ongoing with the concerned entities in the GCC countries on the possibilities of implementing linking projects between the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, not only limited to eServices but to be distinguished with high quality and should gain the users’ satisfaction, taking into consideration the eGoverment strategy in each of the member states.
The eGovernment Authority participated in the accompanying exhibition, which was opened following the announcement of the winners, along with a number of ministries and agencies of the Kingdom of Bahrain where Bahrain showcased its eGovernment experience and the renovated services offered by the eGovernment Authority portal, beside the provision of eServices developed by the government ministries in cooperation with the eGovernment Authority and the development and achievements that have been attained in this field.
According to the conference program, a special panel discussion was held comprising all GCC eGovernment programs chief executives. Mohammad Al Qaed, the Chief Executive of the eGovernment Authority participated in the panel discussion which was held prior to the first session dedicated to the conference papers. Al Qaed shed light on the legal framework and the legislative readiness for the eGovernment programs in the GCC countries and the challenges ahead in this regard.
The Kingdom of Bahrain has an active participation this year in the discussion sessions and the conference papers where Dr. Zakareya Ahmed Al Khaja, Director of Policies and Business Processes Re-engineering Directorate at the eGovernment Authority will be the chairperson of the first session that demonstrates the conference papers.
Dr Ali AlSoufi, University of Bahrain professor and the expert of the National Enterprise Architecture Framework project presented the fourth paper.The paper titled “Bahrain National Enterprise Architecture Framework (NEAF) Initiative”.
Nezar Ma’roof, the Managing Director for Government Support Programs will cover the remaining papers and recommendations. The fourth paper of Nezar titled: “The Interactive Meeting System” which is facilitates the organization of the government meetings”.