Major achievements have been realised in the past 20 months since Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa ordered the implementation of an e-government strategy, said Central Informatics Organisation (CIO) acting president Shaikh Ahmed bin Ateyatalla Al Khalifa. "On the infrastructure side the second phase of the government network upgrade has been completed," he told the GDN.
"It links all government bodies at a very high speed.
"All government hardware and software to operate the government's major applications have been replaced and the communication links have been upgraded in the ministries," said Shaikh Ahmed.
IT specialists throughout the government are now being trained as part of agreements signed by the Bahrain government and major international companies, such as IBM, Microsoft, Cisco and Trend Micro.
Work on similar deals is ongoing, with other leading companies set to benefit from their expertise in this field, said Shaikh Ahmed.
The new CIO building has just been completed in order to begin issuing the country's first national cards.
It has been designed to cope with the challenge of issuing a Smart Card, through which all government services will be provided, said Shaikh Ahmed.
The building will open to the public following the completion of its new organisational structure.
It will provide round-the-clock services to issue and renew Smart Cards, which are a significant part of the e-government
The first application of the card will be launched with an "e-gate" at the airport, which will allow citizens to enter and leave within seconds and without having to deal with airport personnel, revealed Shaikh Ahmed.
Meanwhile, CIO is awaiting final approval from government establishments taking part in the scheme before starting to issue the national card, he said.
The device will even allow Bahrainis abroad to vote electronically.
"CIO has upgraded the hardware and software at its end in order to be able to deal with the new technologies," said Shaikh Ahmed.
"We are working as one team with government bodies in order to define the applications and to put in place solutions.
"CIO has set up a strategy with a large budget to prepare and train employees in electronic government.
"We have put in place a plan to set up kiosks in various locations to access the e-government services and it was agreed with a number of volunteers to be present at these kiosks to help citizens and users." The locations of these kiosks will be announced later along with training details, said Shaikh Ahmed.
Autor: SOMAN BABY
Quelle: Gulf Daily News, 04.08.2004
