IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Secretary-general of the National Economy Ministry Mohammed bin Nasser Al Khusaibi said once the project was carried out, the sultanate would boast one of the latest telecom infrastructures in the world.

“The sultanate is always keen to enhance the e-government infrastructure and keep pace with the latest developments in the telecommunications field,” he added, noting that telecommunications now played an important role in socio-economic development and “add value to life of citizens and residents in the country.”

The NDC has been set up with the objective of ensuring improved business continuity across the wide network of the government's IT systems. The centre has been designed to provide all ministries with multi-tenant high-availability data storage facilities to host their wide array of information as well as to offer disaster recovery solutions. It currently hosts national level projects such as the government's e-Services portal, eTendering system and ITA's internal infrastructure projects and systems.

Several high level dignitaries including the Minister of Commerce & Industry, General Secretary of Ministry of Finance, Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Transport and Communications for Communications, Under Secretary at the Minister of Commerce & Industry, CEO of Omantel, CEO of PEIE, board of directors of ITA, a number of Excellencies and Under Secretaries and other notable guests attended this launch ceremony.

The e-payment gateway, ITA sources said, would be operational in line with Oman’s forthcoming e-government gateway called the UBAR portal. It will support multiple acquiring banks. To facilitate this mechanism, ITA yesterday signed agreements with MasterCard Worldwide and BankMuscat to launch the ‘national e-payment gateway’ to provide an e-governance infrastructure and full e-commerce facilities that allow secure online payments.

Mehdi bin Mohammed al Abdwani, Director General of Development Planning at the Ministry, said that the demonstration aims to shed light on the steps taken by the National Economy Ministry to device the investment electronic system of the 8th five-year developmental plan which includes the E-Format for new projects.

Dr Salim bin Said Al Bahri, director-general at the Directorate-General of Education for Al Buraimi said: “The e-Gate project is about the future plans on utilising the technology and contemporary knowledge and sciences in modernisation of administrative systems.”

The agreement was signed with Said Al Shahry Law Office, which is in partnership for this project with the law firm Baker & McKenzie.

The symposium entitled ‘e-governance reality and challenges’ started on Saturday and is being held jointly by Muscat Municipality, the Arab Urban Development Institute and the World Bank.

Dr Salim AL Ruzaiqi, CEO of Information Technology Authority (ITA) noted that the law incorporated strict penalties for anyone misusing electronic systems, the applications and the data they contain, hacking into computer systems and un-authorised capture or tampering of data.

The project named Community IT Training pilot project (CITT) is part of nationwide initiative to provide ICT training opportunities for Omanis to help them fully participate in 'eOman'.

The e-purse facility in the national ID and resident cards launched last year is all set to emerge as a convenient tool for all financial transactions later this year. The e-purse services, hitherto loaded only at the Royal Oman Police (ROP) ID card office in Seeb, will be extended to the general public at all banks, government agencies and retailers.

Citizens and residents can load amounts ranging from RO 5 to RO 1,000 on their ID/resident cards for e-payment anywhere in Oman. This will help promote electronic transactions in a big way and further enhance security of card transactions.

Tariq Hilal Al Barwani, the founder and president of KnowledgeOman said: “The government sector has done an amazing job of introducing an electronic means where public can do their day-to-day transactions simply via the world-wide web. We have realised that it is important that we combine all the entry points into a single link under one roof, and therefore we have created KO e-Gateway to serve the community in Oman”.

In line with the e-governance project that aims to digitalise knowledge and information for easy access and use, Oman Mobile teamed with the Ministry of Civil Services to launch a SMS job announcement service for vacancies in the public sector.

Oman has won the coveted award among over 700 projects from 168 countries across the globe in the World Summit Award 2009. This innovative solution has also won the best e-content in the Arab region in the e-government category at the Bahrain International eGovernment Forum 2009 under the WSA program.

Dr. Salim Al Ruzaiqi. CEO of ITA and Mr. Seah Chin Siong, CEO of IDA International sign this agreement on the 15th of March 2009 in the presence of the President of Singapore HE S. R. Nathan, HE Sheikh Al Fadhel Al Harthy, Undersecretary for Development Affairs Ministry of National Economy and Deputy of Chairman of ITA and other high level dignitaries of the Singaporean delegation.

This portal was launched by H.E Ahmed Rashid Mohammed al Mamari, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Social Development in the presence of Dr. Salim Al Ruzaiqi, CEO of ITA and Mr. Mohamed Ali Al Qaed, CEO of eGovernment Authority, Kingdom of Bahrain.

Nassir bin Humaid Al Khiyari, Director-General of the Administrative and Financial Affairs at the Ministry of Information, head of implementing the plan of e-transformation highlighted what have been done and what will be done in this regard.

The e-Education seminar was aimed at offering an information platform on how technology can support academic approaches and enrich the learning environment for students and teachers, a press release said.