On this occasion, eGA Strategy eBusiness & Process Re-engineering Director Nizar Marouf highlighted the importance of the authority’s strategy to promote technological initiatives and pave the way for a competitive environment in order to improve delivery efficiency and deliver high-quality eServices provided on the Open Data Platform.
“We are about to expand the scope of participation so as to increase the interaction of the public via eParticipation. The authority has launched this competition with a core focus on creating a service or application to be transferred later into an eService provided on the open data platform site,’’ Marouf, said.
In order to participate, applicant needs to visit www.data.gov.bh, review the data available on the website and submit ideas into the section ‘Ideas’ (accessible on the same website). The winning idea will be adopted and implemented plus the winner will receive an iPad Mini as an appreciation.
The open data platform project is a unified center that provides public data from various ministries and governmental entities. The Open Data Platform will enable the public to have a central point of access to find, download and use or re-use datasets generated by the ministries and governmental entities in the Kingdom. The platform provides a set of data and statistics previously published by competent authorities.
“Public users will gain benefit from open data at various levels, and such data will enable them to have a better understanding of the government work. Furthermore, it will contribute to help businesses to make use of data in researches and reports, in addition to developing web and Smartphone applications, as well as public-data focused solutions”, Marouf added. .
eGA has recently organized a workshop on open data platform initiative for several ICT companies that are headquartered in the Kingdom.
The workshop comes as part of implementing the National eGovernment Strategy 2016 action plans and initiatives carried-out in order to facilitate government formalities – allowing open data to become accessible for the public – a step that will contribute in attracting and promoting investment in the country. This would be achieved by creating an appropriate climate for promising investments with sustainable and competitive advantages in line with the objectives of Bahrain Economic Vision 2030.