The government's BD42 million project to make 167 services available online by 2010, is making good progress and public awareness is growing, said e-Government Agency chief executive Mohammed Al Qaed.
"It took us time to roll things out and to have quality services, but we expect it will not take that long now to get the others up and running, and in the third year we will enrich the services and put the finishing touches," he said.
He said government agencies still needed to synchronise efforts before some of the more difficult services could be made available electronically.
More support from the private sector in terms of software and IT specialists is also required.
Mr Al Qaed was speaking at a Press conference held at the Bahrain Crowne Plaza's Bahrain Conference Centre.
He was speaking ahead of the Bahrain International eGovernment Forum and Exhibition to be held at Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre on May 19 to 21.
New services offered by the e-Government Agency will be announced before or during the forum.
"We can't have e-government services without the readiness of the private sector," said Mr Al Qaed.
He said the agency was working in co-ordination with the services sector and companies such as Microsoft were supporting the government's effort by opening branches in the country, but more help was needed.
"One of the objectives of the forum is to encourage the private sector to be prepared to support the government in this transformation," said Mr Al Qaed.
"We need skilled people and software to be ready on the ground.
"E-government is not a programme that can achieved by one organisation or agency, everyone needs to contribute."
Mr Al Qaed said there was good public awareness about e-government services and people were using them.
For example, of the 62,000 people entitled to a BD50 monthly inflation buffer, 10,000 were registered by the Social Development Ministry. While 90 to 95 per cent of the 52,000 were registered using the e-government portal www.e.gov.bh.
"The announcement for the inflation allowance was given on a weekend and usually at the weekend we have between 6,000 to 8,000 hits on the site, but that weekend we had 130,000 hits, so it shows there is awareness and interest," said Mr Al Qaed.
Awareness is being raised through exhibitions, workshops, media, and capacity building.
"We are much more advanced than other countries, we just need co-ordination," he said.
Bahrain Society of Engineers president Abdul Majeed Al Gassab hoped the forum would help to raise awareness about the portal and its benefits.
The Press conference was also attended by Bahrain Information Technology Society (BITS) vice-president Hussain Naeemi and forum organising committee member Isa Abdulrahman.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by forum organisers e-Government Agency, Bahrain Society of Engineers and BITS.
For more information about e-government services visit www.e.gov.bh.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Rebecca Torr
Quelle/Source: Gulf Daily News, 27.04.2008
