IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

He was speaking at a presentation as part of the Middle East: Homeland and Global Security Forum, at the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain Hotel and Spa.

The initiative called 'e-government towards a better life' was launched yesterday by Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Information and Communication Technology (SCICT) who highlighted the salient features of the three year e-government strategy.

Mohammed Al Qaed, eGovernment Authority chief executive officer, told a press conference the scheme to put all official services online would cost BD30 million ($79.5 million) once complete.

"Originally, we had BD22 million earmarked for e-services, but it has increased as the services increased - the ones we were not informed of before," he was quoted by the Gulf Daily News as saying.

Information and eGovernment Authority says most services will migrate to the cloud by mid-2020

Bahrain’s Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) says government spending on IT infrastructure will fall by up to 90 per cent as it looks to migrate all services to the cloud by mid-2020.

“Most of the services will run on serverless mode, saving huge capex spent on establishing local servers and infrastructure… we will achieve savings [of] between 60 to 90 per cent,” Mohammed Ali Al Qaed, chief executive of iGA, told The National.

The drive, called the Financial Support for Citizens with Limited Income service, involves full online registration for eligible citizens to receive monetary aid from the government.

It also concerns the integration of government systems and the databases of various ministries and private organisations such as the Ministry of Social Development, Central Informatics Organisation, and the General Organisation for Social Insurance, Commerce and Industry, among others.

Bahrain’s Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) has completed studying the first phase of the project ‘Development of Government Services’ as per the directives of HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa - Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister.

The study comprised of the re-engineering of procedures for 14 government services out of 25 included within the project. Work is currently underway to complete the remaining services during the month of September up until December 2017 – in collaboration with various concerned government entities.

Bahrain’s health ministry competed with more than 40 government entities from six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

The Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) has launched a host of new ePayment services in cooperation with the private sector, the latest being self-payment kiosks in partnership with leading payment channel, Sadad.

This is in line with its commitment to provide a range of digital platforms and payment channels to the public, and streamline government transactions, said the statement from iGA.

Bahrain's Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) has implemented the 'Cloud First' policy, enabling system migration systems to the cloud following the best practices, while adhering to iGA's security standards and procedures. Bahrain was selected by Amazon to become the first regional centre for data in the Middle East and Africa regions. With such an announcement, the country is considered to have made another international accomplishment.

The initiative, by Bahrain's eGovernment Authority (eGA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will also ensure the Arabic content in websites increases significantly from the present one per cent, said Cabinet Affairs Minister Shaikh Ahmed bin Ateyatala Al Khalifa.

Bahrain is the highest climber among Gulf nations in this year's rankings and over a three-year period, having gained 21 places since 2006.

The Bahrain Institute of Public Administration (BIPA) has included, in conjunction with the eGovernment Authority (eGA), an array of free-of-charge eTraining courses as part of the national eGovernment portal services (Bahrain.bh) to provide all employees of government entities and ministries with the opportunity to make best use of eTraining courses provided by the institute through the online registration on the ePortal.

The event will also comprise His Highness's inauguration of Bahrain IT Expo 2013 along with the honoring of eGovernment Excellence Award 2013 winners.

Zain Bahrain, a leading telecommunications provider in the Kingdom, announced its sponsorship of the 9^th edition of Bahrain International eGovernment Forum, under the patronage of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak AlKhalifa, Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Information and Communication Technology. The forum is set to take place at The Ritz Carlton Hotel, on the 7^th and 8^th October 2018.

As one of the forum’s official sponsors, Zain Bahrain will provide high-speed Internet to all participants and visitors.

In a press conference held yesterday, HE Shaikh Ahmed bin Atteyatallah Al Khalifa, Minister of Cabinet Affairs, announced the results of the report of the United Nations e-Government Readiness 2010, where the Kingdom of Bahrain has made a new achievement in this area, and occupied a new leading position at the world level.

INSEAD, an international business school, and the World Economic Forum, yesterday released the 12th annual Global Information Technology Report (GITR) with the support of Booz and Company and Cisco.

Three GCC countries rank in top five on government usage of information and communication technologies (ICT) - the UAE (two), Bahrain (four), Qatar (five), with Saudi Arabia following in sixth place.

At the Amazon Web Services Summit, Mohamed Al AlQaed, the CEO of the Bahrain’s Information and eGovernment Authority (iGA), announced the launch of the ”Cloud First” policy, allowing migrating systems to cloud following the best practices while preserving the iGA’s high-security standards.

AlQaed also commented that the Kingdom is among the leading countries in the Middle East to adopt the cloud policy in the public sector. According to him, it would lead to a wide range of high-paying jobs in both the public and the private sectors. Many government agencies have already started transferring their data to the cloud, he added.

“This new eService enables advertisers, who are registered in the advertisement permits system, to view any existing violations; with an option of viewing or printing details,” stated Sawsan Hussain Safar, the ministry’s Information Systems Directorate director.

Manama A project that gives users a single electronic identity to access an array of government services has been launched in Bahrain.

Its developers say users can be assured that the system is secure and will protect them from online identity theft.

“The National Authentication Frame Work project for Accessing Electronic Service is a new initiative in Bahrain that enables individuals to access various e-services offered by both government and non-governmental entities using a single dedicated identity profile,” Shaikh Ahmad Bin Atteyatallah Al Khalifa, minister of cabinet affairs, said.

Previously, only credit card users could make payments online for services such as traffic fines, electricity and water bill payments etc. Over 70% residents of Bahrain will now be able to pay the fees for services available on the eGovernment portal - www.e.gov.bh. This facility is available, at no additional cost, to the users.