There are more than 65 services available, including payment of municipal bills and visa applications.
The recent change of address of the e-Government portal is also in line with the ongoing expansion of e-services, said e-Government Authority chief executive Mohammed Al Qaed.
Driven by customer needs, the portal address has been changed from www.e.gov.bh to www.bahrain.bh.
"The most popular e-Government service now is the online payment of electricity bills," Mr Al Qaed told the GDN.
"The number of transactions is now close to the value of BD320,000 a month."
Another popular service is the appointment for smart cards, with the number reaching about 2,000 daily, said Mr Al Qaed.
The e-visa services, for family visas, offered by the General Directorate of Nationality, Passports and Residence has also become popular, he said.
Among the new services planned is the issue of birth and death certificates.
"Now the procedure involved for this requires many visits to hospitals or health centres and the Health Ministry," he said.
"The time-consuming process takes two to three weeks.
"Once the service is made available through the portal, all that will be required is to fill in a form and make payment online.
"The certificate will be sent to the concerned parties by registered post within a week."
The renewal of car registration will also become possible through the e-government portal in the future, revealed Mr Al Qaed.
"The Traffic Directorate has already reached an agreement to this effect with five major insurance companies," he said.
"The Bahrain Insurance Association will be able to link its system with the government database in future."
The presence of a state-of-the-art e-government framework clearly demonstrates that Bahrain is striving to ensure that all services are easy to use and suited to the needs of residents and businesses, said Mr Al Qaed.
New user-friendly systems include an SMS alert and notification system.
Features like multiple access routes to information, special search facilities in Arabic and English and categorisation of information for individuals, businesses, tourists and government users will also be available.
The portal website offers wide-ranging, multiple-featured e-services and information under the categories of individual, business, government and visit Bahrain. Visitor numbers to the e-Government portal have now reached 8,692,800. The average time spent on the portal of six minutes.
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Soman Baby
Quelle/Source: Gulf Daily News, 07.11.2008
