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.
The Kingdom is now ranked the thirteenth (13) at the world level and it was ranked forty-second (42) during 2008, advancing the Kingdom twenty-nine (29) positions and surpassing many European and Asian countries in this area.
The report, which was issued every two years by the United Nations, the advent of the Kingdom of Bahrain in the first place at the level of the Gulf and the Middle East after it was already in the second place, ahead of all the Gulf states and Arab countries. Bahrain has also achieved the third place (3) in Asia After occupying the eighth (8) two years ago, noting that one of the strategic objectives of the Bahrain eGovernment was to reach the fifth (5) position in Asia, but Bahrain exceeded this position and deservedly occupied the third place, outperforming the very technically advanced Asian countries such as Japan, Malaysia and others.
This came during a press conference held by the e-government to announce the results of the annual report for 2010 issued by the United Nations on the readiness of countries in the world for the application of ICT in their (e-government) and the extent of access to the public and at what level. The report identified the use of the e-government as a tool which increases the accessibility of information and provision of government services to the public. The report listed 192 countries in the world at the level of readiness of their governments, where Bahrain achieved universal achievement and occupied the top ranking at the level of Arab countries, the third place at the level of the Asian countries and the thirteenth place at the level of the world.
In this regard, His Excellency Shaikh Ahmed bin Atteyatallah expressed his pride in the rank Bahrain reaped at various levels, saying:
"Forming the e-government Authority to lead the transition to electronic services at the right timing and place, as the Agency oversees the various government digital projects in accordance with the approved international standards. It provides support to ministries and state institutions on the electronic transformation, and today we reap the fruits of those combined efforts of the e-government Authority and all ministries and institutions to gain the honorable ranking at various regional and global levels."
He affirmed that, "The e-government with its own initiatives, achievements and effectiveness managed to be of international interest in the field of information technology and communications, due to the fact that Bahrain owns components which makes it a pioneer in the field of e-government at the level of the countries of the region, especially with the support e-government project receives in Bahrain from HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Information Technology and Communications, where the Kingdom is placed in a high rank in the United Nations e-government Readiness index which according to Bahrain advanced 29 places in the order to reach rank (13) at the world level, rank (1) at the Arab level rank (3) for Asia."
The Minister of Cabinet Affairs added, "The rapid development of information and communication technology in the GCC has led to significant progress in the Middle East and thus recognition of its achievements at the international level,"
HE, praised the remarkable efforts exerted by the Kingdom of Bahrain, in particular, to develop infrastructure and aspects regulatory related to the sector of information technology and communications.
HE Shaikh Ahmed bin Atteyatallah Al-Khalifa, extended his sincere congratulations to His Majesty the King, His Royal Highness the Prime Minister and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince on this Bahraini achievement in the field of information technology and e-government at the world level as attested by the largest international organizations which the United Nations, noting that Bahrain was able in this report and the important index, by the grace of God to excel on several advanced countries, including deep rooted European and Asian countries.
On this occasion, Shaikh Attayatallah pointed to the role of the Supreme Committee for Information Technology and Telecommunications in this achievement, under the chairmanship of HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister, and his personal follow-up to e-Government program, as well as the role of their Highnesses and Excellencies the Ministers members of the Supreme Committee for Information Technology and Telecommunications, for the support they provide to the e-Government program of their precious time, their valuable experience and good guidance.
He added, "I would also like to refer to the efforts of all the loyal people of Bahrain of government officials in all ministries and institutions, especially the staff in the eGovernment Authority, for their effort to implement e-government project."
The Minister of Cabinet Affairs confirmed that gaining this advanced rank by Bahrain and to be selected as No 13 at the world level in the United Nations e-Government Readiness Report 2010, is placing the Kingdom to undertake a greater level of responsibility and challenge to continue to progress and to improve the rank of the Kingdom of Bahrain according to global indicators in the provision of excellent government services, which would contribute to raising the capacity of Bahrain's competitiveness in the world according to the Bahrain Economic Vision 2030.
For his part, Mr. Mohammed Ali Al Qaed, the Chief Executive Officer of the e-government Authorityexpressed his pride in this result, and said in this regard, "In the previous report of the United Nations in 2008, Bahrain occupied the second at the Arab level and the forty-second worldwide and, accordingly, we met with the United Nations at its headquarters in New York and formed a Bahraini working group from relevant agencies to work on improving the rank of the Kingdom of Bahrain, and review evaluation mechanisms by the United Nations, noting that it was stressed in the evaluation process for this year, which negatively impacted on the classification and ranking of several countries, compared to the previous report in 2008, but despite that, in the present report for 2010 the Kingdom of Bahrain has made unprecedented achievements."
Mr. Al Qaed expressed the causes of the kingdom's keenness to participate in this annual assessment prepared by the World Organization of the United Nations, saying, "This report is a global survey and a comprehensive assessment of the performance of the world's governments in the implementation of e-initiatives. It is one of the pilot and reliable studies which reviews the information and evaluate it as a third party and impartial in the evaluation process for the performance of e-government. Most importantly of all, make the United Nations enjoys one of the most important key features in the study process, namely that its measurement is not based only on the implementation of the initiatives, but on the extent of benefit derived from such electronic services by the users."
The eGovernment CEO called upon governments to strengthen the role of information and communication technology through the addition of supportive programs to meet the special needs?? of this sector in general terms that would contribute to increasing the role of the public in the process of transition towards knowledge-based society and increasing dependence on information technology as an essential tool in the process of social and economic development.
It is worth noting that the Kingdom of Bahrain has advanced 29 places According to the world rankings for this year 2010, where it occupied in 2008 rank 42 globally, while No. 13 in this year's report for 2010. The rate of change for the general index is from 57% to 73%, while Bahrain progressed from rank 44 to 8 according to the Web Index on e-government, where rate of change in the index from 52% to 73%, and significantly the Kingdom of Bahrain advanced under e-participation index from 34% to 67%.
And on the indicators adopted for measuring performance, Mr. Al Qaed said, "The United Nations report, is considered one of the main indicators used to measure the performance of the United Nations Member States with regard to programs and initiatives on e-government, according to the strategy of the Kingdom of Bahrain e-government, the report has been adopted as one of the indicators to measure performance and a standard was targeted to be the first among the GCC countries and rank (5) in Asia within the strategic objectives of e-Government Program."
He pointed out that the report relies on three main axes to measure the development and progression of States: Web index (the e-government national portal Bahrain.bh, the Ministry of Finance, Ministry Of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of Labor.
The index of infrastructure for communications based on the data and statistics by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), and the index of human capital according to the report of UNESCO (Central Informatics Organization) in addition to the e-participation index.
In conclusion, Mr. Al Qaed praised the ministries and governmental institutions in the Kingdom of Bahrain and said, "The ministries and the public sector in general own capable local human resources in the area of advanced information technology, an advantage of Bahrain, and the electronic culture is common among all ministries. The basics of e-government project and guidelines have been developed properly, and all these things will contribute mainly to the formation of advanced e-government in Bahrain which works to facilitate the provision of services to citizens and the general public so as to achieve satisfaction with these services."
It should be noted that South Korea ranked first in the report of the United Nations e-government for 2010, followed by the United States in the second place, and Canada in third place, while the Kingdom of Bahrain came in the 13th place.
At the Asian level, South Korea came first place (and first in the world), Singapore was ranked second (11th in the world), while the Kingdom of Bahrain has achieved the third Asian (thirteenth in the world).
At the Arab and Gulf level, the Kingdom of Bahrain has achieved first place (the thirteenth in the world), while the United Arab Emirates came in the second place (49 globally), and Kuwait came third (50 globally).
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Rana Mesbah
Quelle/Source: AME Info, 12.01.2010
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