The conference suggested establishing a special division for e-government at the GCC Secretariat-General’s website to enhance joint work, besides mooting expanding the co-operation among the GCC countries to discuss the international indicators in enhancing their level as well as exploring the possibility of developing a Gulf index.
The participants stressed the importance of taking necessary measures and promulgating laws that secure integrating IT & C in all the functions and operations undertaken by public and private sector establishments as well as civil society organisations. It also encouraged providing these organisations and individuals with incentives to encourage them to benefit from the e-government services. The importance of employing new technologies to improve different sectors of society, especially people with special needs, was also discussed.
Enhancing investment in human resources in digital society fields by establishing partnerships with higher education institutions and providing individuals and public and private sector organisations with skills that ensure their integration with digital society were also recommended at the conference.
The conference also discussed encouraging co-operation with Gulf universities to enhance research and development to create strategic links among the e-government projects and economic developments. Developing open-end softwares and indicators that assess the contribution of IT in the GDP also came for discussion.
Building effective partnerships with different categories of society and economic sectors to expedite the shift towards digital society were also suggested. It also recommended establishing businesses, attracting investments and incubators for SMEs in IT. The conference suggested a study to set up institutional or sectoral committees to activate co-ordination among the public organisations and expedite the implementation of e-government programmes.
Adopting the best international practices to reach the integrated e-government level selecting programmes that may be shared by the GCC countries to create model projects for implementing the integrated e-government approach and creating comprehensive society service networks, especially in the impoverished areas to enable individuals to benefit from the e-government services were also highlighted during the meeting. In the concluding speech, Dr Al Wahaibi pointed out that the recommendations reached by the conference will form a work plan for the respective departments to ensure success of its plans and develop its systems related to the different fields of e-government.
On the other hand, Oman Minister of National Economy and Deputy Chairman of the Financial Affairs and Energy Resources Council, Mr Ahmed bin Abdulnabi Macki distributed the GCC e-Government Award on the sidelines of the 1st Gulf e-Government conference.
The Justice Ministry of Qatar received the first award for the e-content for its website. Jeddah Governorate Portal of Saudi Arabia came second and the Public Authority for Civil Aviation of the UAE came third. In the best e-services, the Public Authority for Water and Electricity of Qatar came first, Dubai Electricity and Water came second for the e-billing system and the e-Government Authority of Bahrain came third for its e-birth services.
In the best e-project category, the e-Government system (Yusr) of Saudi Arabia came first for its government-integrated channel, the Interior Ministry of Bahrain came second for its Unified Criminal System and Dubai Electricity and Water came third for its public utility systems (SAB).
In the best e-maturity category, the e-Government Authority of Bahrain came first for its integrated platform services, the Road and Transport Authority of the UAE came second for the e-Government programme services and the Sultanate represented by ITA came third for the official portal for the e-Government services.
In e-economy category, the payment system in Saudi Arabia (Sadad) came first, Muscat Securities Market came second for the mobile trading services and the Commerce and Industry Ministry of Bahrain came third for the electronic investor services. The ceremony was attended by ministers, under-secretaries and heads of diplomatic missions in the GCC countries, besides representatives of the corporates and establishments taking part in the event.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): George Haddad
Quelle/Source: Global Arab Network, 25.12.2009
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