Engineer Abdul-Majeed Al Gassab, Chairman of the Executive Committee and President of Bahrain Society of Engineers (BSE) underlining the importance of the global events like eGovernment Forum said such platforms would remain a key to achieve the aspirations of Vision 2030.
Al Gassab, who was joined by Mohammad Al Qaed the CEO of the eGovernment Authority and other members of the organising committee of eGovernment Forum 2012, said that BSE would continue to work with all its peer organisations to make Vision 2030 an achievable target.
The organizing committee announced its preparations for the launch of the Bahrain International eGovernment Forum 2012 which will take place from 9th to 11th April 2012 under the patronage of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed Bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Information and Communication Technology. The forum, in its fifth version, is organized by the eGovernment Authority in coordination with the Bahrain Society of Engineers, the Bahrain Internet Society (BIS) and Project Management Institute-Arabian Gulf chapter (PMI-AGC).
“This key annual event consecutively is held for the fifth year as a pivotal assembly platform for local and international ICT experts, and represents a renovated communication channel and a value-added window to featuring the state-of-the-art technologies,” Al Gassab, said.
“The forum provides an ideal environment to exchanging information, experiences and expertise in the field of ICT and creates investment opportunities to develop technology in Bahrain in line with the Bahrain Economic Vision 2030,” Al Gassab added.
“The Bahrain International eGovernment Forum this year aims to explore the cutting-edge development concepts in the field of information and communication technology and enable experts to disseminate and share experiences and expertise, in addition to developing ICT in the Kingdom of Bahrain across various sectors in line with the eGovernment program activities,” Mohammad Al Qaed the CEO of the eGovernment Authority said.
Al Qaed confirmed that this year’s forum seeks to trigger the roles of all sectors – public, private and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), so as to provide solutions and define the necessary requirements to develop information technology in order to support the national economy in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
It is noted that during the official inaugural of the Forum on the 9th, April His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the Supreme Committee of Information and Communication Technology will concurrently open the Bahrain IT Expo 2012 which provides an opportunity for participating companies to display their activities and services that attract the interest of both the Private and Public sectors. Additionally, winners of the eGovernment Excellence Awards 2012 will also be announced, and H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Mubarak Al Khalifa will present them the awards during the opening ceremony.
Nawaf AbdulRahman, Chairman of the Forum’s Technical Committee and President of Bahrain Internet Society, pointed out that this year’s event will address the latest developments in technology with focus on a variety of key topics and programs relating to eGovernment, eParticipation, eInnovations, open data, mobility, Smart Cities & Internet of Things, as well as applications, 4G technology, image data transfer and Voice Over Internet Protocol.
“This year’s forum brings together international speakers who will share their experiences in ICT; they come from the Korea, Brussels, Estonia, United Kingdom, Japan, Egypt and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Turkey, Poland, Netherlands, USA, Germany and Colombia,” Nawaf said.
Following the opening day the 10th & 11th of April 2012 will hold the forum and also feature a number of workshops which aim to attain a constructive outcome through exchanging knowledge and professional experience. These include: (The Cyber Law and Public Private Partnership) (PPP) workshop which will reflect on the existing laws in the ICT milieu and explore potential PPP models for the public and private sector, and will address issues related to the privacy, intellectual property rights and freedom of expression and free access to information; the (eContent Management) workshop will focus on the latest innovations and creative approaches to develop eContent in the region. It provides participants the opportunity to create and originate their websites through a practical session on the best practices in the field of managing website content. Furthermore, the (Security) workshop will present the best practices in enforcing security and preventions to ensure the safety of users, in addition to exploring the major security breaches that may occur through the use of ICT and how to ensure privacy in the light of future innovations; and finally the (Social Media Hands-On) workshop will provide hands-on & practical Social Media skills to a wide array of professionals, government officials and everyday people.
As expected the total number of delegates to Bahrain International eGovernment Forum 2012 and the accompanying IT Expo may exceed 500 participants from inside and outside the Kingdom of Bahrain, particularly last year’s forum attracted over 400 delegates from the ICT sector, senior officials of the public sector, business leaders, and experts from institutions and international companies. This fact indicates that this year’s eGovernment Forum promises to craft a global platform for a variety of topics, where guests will interactively share experiences with the participating experts, decision makers and professionals in the areas of eGovernment and information technology and communications.
Ahmed Naeemi, Chairman of the Forum’s Sponsorship and Exhibition Committee and Director Corporate Liaison, PMI-AGC, said that the Tamkeen as the strategic partner were as the Premier sponsors of the forum are Ministry of Interior, and Ernest & Young is the ; the Diamond sponsors are Shura Council, ALMOAYED computers, Affno Middle East, Microsoft, Batelco, and GBM-IBM; the Platinum sponsors are STS Jordan, Zain Bahrain, and Bapco; the Gold sponsors are Electricity and Water Authority, ICOL, and Silah Gulf Company.
“The sponsorship will allow companies to promote their products and services to the audience, and provides them the opportunity to interact with the attending ICT experts and professionals,” Naeemi added.
He added that Bahrain IT Expo 2012 will be open doors for public on the 10th and 11th of April, announcing the list of featured exhibitors includes: Gulf Future Business, the National Institute for Technology, Information Village, Intellivision, Bahrain Green Data Center, Bin Hindi Informatics, Gartner, , Al Zayani Computers Systems, Consumer Consulting Group, He also pointed out that Tamkeen (Labour Fund) will support the participants at the Bahrain IT Expo by covering 80% of the registration and exhibition stand fees as an initiative to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through the Growth Assistance Scheme (GAS).