The former workshop focused on the current legislations in the ICT field, along with seeking for cooperation opportunities in this field among the public and private sector institutions. The latter workshop focused on the latest followed practices and practical experiences in activating social communication tools.
Dr. Nibal Idlebi – ESCWA’s Chief of ICT Applications Section, praised the initiatives of the GCC countries in the IT legislation field and stated, “From my personal experience, I believe there is a need for a law to protect personal data, as UAE has started implementing such an initiative.”
Furthermore, she added that it is vital to acquire a law that secures the information as it will encourage citizens to confidently interact with the internet; at the same time, it will protect the exchange of data.
She also mentioned that the statistics show that service uptake is low even though the available infrastructure and security IT programs are strong and effective.
The speaker of the Social Media Hands-On workshop, Khalid Al Ahmed, spoke about the importance of the social network tools since these tools are the most utilized by citizens, NGOs as well as the private and public institutions – stating “Bahrain is considered as an active country in the usage of social media networks, especially Twitter which embraces 61,000 active users in Bahrain only – with an average of one Tweet per month.”
Al Ahmed also emphasized on activating the governmental entities’ network channels due to its effectiveness and transparencies.