The two-day third Gulf eCommerce Forum 2009 opened yesterday at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre under the patronage of Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Hassan Fakhro.
A recent report by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) revealed that internet use in the majority of Arab countries remains below the prevailing global rate of 21% of the population. In part this could be due to the low level of Arabic content on websites - presently around 1% of the total.
The second phase, which involved assessing the current ICT platforms in all government ministries, then designing the ideal architecture of these platforms under one unified framework for all policies and applications, was carried by joint work groups from the ministries and government agencies and announcing the move to phase three.
According to Bahrain News Agency (BNA), the two agreements were signed by Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, President of the Strategic Council for the Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID), part of the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), and eGovernment Authority CEO Mohammed Al Qaed.
Read more: Bahrain: eGovernment Authority Signs Two MoUs with Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization
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.