The ranking was according to the United Nation e-Government Survey in 2012. The same source shows that Kingdom is No. 20 in the world in terms of providing electronic services.
Saudi Arabia also ranked by the UN No. 41 out of 193 countries in using e-government. The Saudi government has 1,200 electronic services provided by 144 government agencies.
The Kingdom’s e-Government program, Yesser, translates the government's keen interest in implementing the e-government concept. It is part of many initiatives and projects adopted by the government to achieve sustained growth and development in all aspects of life.
The MCIT’s program objectives include raising the productivity and efficiency of the public sector, providing better and more easy-to-use services for individual and business customers, increasing return on investment and providing the required information in a timely and highly accurate fashion.
The UN source said progress in online service delivery continues in most countries around the world. The United Nations E-Government Survey 2012 finds that many have put in place e-government initiatives and information and communication technologies applications for the people to further enhance public sector efficiencies and streamline governance systems to support sustainable development.
Among the e-government leaders, innovative technology solutions have gained special recognition as the means to revitalize lagging economic and social sectors. The overall conclusion that emerges from the 2012 survey in today's recessionary world climate is that while it is important to continue with service delivery, governments must increasingly begin to rethink in terms of e-government — and e-governance — placing greater emphasis on institutional linkages between and among the tiered government structures in a bid to create synergy for inclusive sustainable development.
An important aspect of this approach is to widen the scope of e-government for a transformative role of the government toward a cohesive, coordinated, and integrated processes and institutions through which such sustainable development takes place.
Governments are increasingly becoming aware of the importance of employing e-government and e-governance in improving public service delivery to people. The potential of e-government, as a tool for development, hinges upon three pre-requisites — a minimum threshold level of technological infrastructure, human capital, and e-connectivity for all. E-Government readiness strategies and programs will be able to be effective and “include all” people only if, at the very minimum, all have functional literacy and education, which includes knowledge of computer and Internet use.
On Saturday this week the General Directorate for Internet Services at the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) won first prize at the first Motah Award 2012 in FOSS usage in the public and private sectors category.
Outlining the national program for free and open source software technology Abdurahman Al-Areefi, project manager, said NPFOSST is a KACST program that aims to encourage and promote the use of free and open source software (FOSS) within the community by establishing strong partnerships with multiple agents in the public and private sectors. It provides logistics, technical training, legal and strategic support to interested parties to achieve the objectives of the program.
The program’s goals include preparing a national policy document that will encourage the use of FOSS, raise awareness about FOSS, open standards, content, access and other alternative models for intellectual property rights, he added.
The government of Saudi Arabia has attached high interest to the e-government concept and the transformation process that leads to the implementation of such a concept. It strongly believes in the huge benefits the concept of e-Government entails for the national economy.
Transformation to an information society cannot be achieved without comprehensive collaboration and concerted efforts to realize the specified objectives. Therefore, the MCIT established Yesser in 2005 in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance and the CITC.
Yesser plays the role of enabling the implementation of e-government. It reduces, as much as possible, centralization in e-government implementation while ensuring the minimum level of coordination among government departments.
The organization structure of the e-government program consists of components including the e-government program supreme supervisory committee formed by the minister of finance, the minister of communications and information technology and the governor of the CITC.
Meanwhile, King Abdulaziz City for Sciences and Technology has been in charge of supervising the King Abdullah Initiative for Arabic content.
Focusing on elevating both quantity and quality, the initiative has paid attention to Arabic content and all related tools. The vision and objectives of the initiative include reinforcing digital Arabic content regarding production and usage to support development and transformation into a knowledge-based community in addition to sustaining Arab and Islamic identity. It is also envisioned to utilize digital content to disseminate information electronically to reach all segments of society in addition to consolidating a rich cultural and digital store for all Arab and Islamic societies.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Abdul Hannan Tago
Quelle/Source: Arab News, 02.05.2012
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