Mr. Mohammad Ali Al Qaed, Chief Executive Officer of the e-government Authority was also present along with His Excellency Mr. Sayed Agha, the Resident Representative of UNDP in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
At the beginning of the conference, Mr. Kerby commenced with a simplified background on the report and the date of its inception. He briefed the audience on the survey in the e-government area and the new steps that have taken place in this year's report. In addition he highlighted the objectives of the e-government represented in four major points: the efficiency of public administration in providing information for citizens, providing better eservices to citizens, the enhancement of access to information and citizens empowerment to contribute to the development of e-government through their participation in decision-making.
Mr. Kerby reviewed the results of the annual report for 2010 issued by the United Nations on the readiness of countries of the world for the application of ICT in their e-government and the extent of access to the public and to what level.
The report identified the use of e-government as a tool to increase access to information and provide government services to the public, noting that the report has ranked 192 countries in the world for their the level of readiness of their governments, according to which Bahrain has made a universal achievement and occupied top ranks as country number 1 at the GCC level , the third at the level of Asian countries and thirteenth at a global level.
Mr. Kirby also reviewed other achievements of the Kingdom of Bahrain which ranked third (3) at the level of middle-income countries in the field of e-government, ranked sixth (6) at the level of transactional services countries, and ninth (9) at the level of integration services countries.
Commenting on the realization of the Kingdom of Bahrain for this achievement, Mr. Richard Kerby confirmed that these results were regarded as an unprecedented achievement which has not been achieved by any other country in the region before.
When those in charge of the report considered the reasons for this progress made by Bahrain, it was clear that these achievements were due to the efforts of the e-government in order to reach an advanced level in this field, as well as the leadership role played by e-government at the highest levels.
Mr. Kerby praised the role of the Supreme Committee for Information Technology and communication in achieving this milestone, led by H.H. Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister and his personal follow-up to the e-Government program, and the role of their Excellencies the Ministers members of the Supreme Committee for Information Technology and Communications, for their contributions to the e-government program dedicating their time and valuable expertise, in addition to the efforts of the government staff in all the State ministries, government and private sector institutions particularly in the eGovernment Authority, for their effort to implement the e-government program.
The UN Regional Advisor reviewed the initiatives of the Kingdom of Bahrain and spoke about the (Arab Center for e-content development), based in Bahrain, aimed at developing the Arabic e-content and increase its percentage on the World Wide Web compared to other languages. As well as promoting Arabic-language search engines and building capacity in e-government field.
The center will also audit the digital content through the issuance of approved certificates, and serve the public and private sectors in the Kingdom of Bahrain, all countries in the region, and will also contribute effectively to find a suitable work environment and create sustainable economic growth. He pointed out that this initiative would focus on training and education of Bahrainis, with the creation of new rewarding jobs opportunities.
In his closing remarks during the press conference, Mr. Kerby revealed the way forward in cooperating with the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Gulf States in the field of e-government and on the establishment of the UN Regional Center to serve the GCC and region and develop the econtent. In addition to developing the culture of the citizens in the field of e-government through involving them in decision making and enhancing the infrastructure of fixed and mobile broadband access to encourage the use of the Internet, working side by side to develop Arabic content on the web and reach to what is known as the knowledge society, continuing to improve eservices provided by e-government of the Kingdom of Bahrain through marketing and awareness programs to users.
For his part, MR. Mohammed Ali Al Qaed confirmed the Kingdom of Bahrain's keenness to participate in the global annual assessment prepared by the United Nations because it is a global survey and comprehensive assessment of the performance of the world's governments in the implementation of e-initiatives, and one of the pilot and trusted studies which reviews and assess in its capacity as a neutral third party, in the evaluation process for the performance of e-government.
He stressed that the most important characteristics of the report prepared by the United Nations during the study was its measurement is not based only on the implementation of the initiatives, but also on the extent of benefit derived from such electronic services by users
Mr. Al Qaed has 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.
The Chief Executive Officer of the e-government explained that the Kingdom of Bahrain and after this achievement will work to maintain this leading position and to take several steps in this area, including: the encouragement and development of e-participation among the public, contributing to the development of infrastructure for fixed and mobile communications and encourage the use of the Internet, the creation and development of the Arabic e-content on the Internet, in addition to marketing and promoting the use of e-government services.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Husam Odiabat
Quelle/Source: AME Info, 10.02.2010
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