Addressing a press conference following the opening ceremony of Bahrain International eGovernment Forum 2013, eGovernment Authority CEO Mohammed Ali Al Qaed said that eGA was able to rollout a new search engine in record time and without extra money.
“Such project carries $1million or more and needs six months to be launches while eGA in-house team launched the same project in six weeks record time,” Al Qaed added.
eGovernment Authority CEO Mohammed Ali Al Qaed announced that a Search Engine has been developed and was launched by H.H. Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa on Monday at the national portal site Bahrain.bh. It is connected to a consolidated database and linked with all government sites with new features adopting the latest standards in accordance with the best international practices in this aspect.
“Such developments takes not less than six months, however, we were able to deliver it within two months – based on the national human resources; an achievement we are proud of,” Al Qaed, said.
He further explained that the authority embarked on the development of the Search Engine and started to update the government databases in collaboration with those in concern. Those databases were linked to the developed Search Engine that is supplied with mechanisms – enabling users to get the desired search results based on a set of existing services and a bunch of different options to meet the needs of all users (citizens, residents, visitors and businessmen) dealing with governmental bodies.
He also mentioned that the development of the Search Engine aims to offer a new concept of government services. The service gives added value by bringing all the information associated with the search request from the eGovernment national portal and other governmental sites. The Search Engine will provide faster search results by giving access to the requested service with minimal number of steps, as well as enabling adding search requests to a ‘Favorite List’ in order to get faster results. He also pointed that the Search Engine is linked to an advanced navigation system that provides interactive maps built on the basis of the information for each service.
Al Qaed also announced the launch of a number of initiatives that fall within the scope of the National eGovernment Strategy 2016.
He said the strategy affirmed the commitment to achieve next generation government excellence by delivering comprehensive and high-quality services as well as leading the way towards eTransformation that go in line with best ICT global practices and within inspiring environment supported by a first-class national legal framework.
Al Qaed welcomed the guests, participants and media. He stressed that the forum; organized in its 6th version 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 (SCICT); is developing as an international platform to discuss a variety of topics, exchange knowledge and expertise as well as create innovative ICT solutions for the economy and development.
“This year’s forum embraces valuable topics with the participation of top international speakers, and offers interactive workshops that will reflect the latest in the ICT arena. The pinpointed concept for this year is to benefit from innovative ideas that inspire, in addition to showcasing other technical and productive concepts, supporting the partnership between public-private sectors and NGOs in the Kingdom as well as increasing the scope of mutual and joint cooperation to achieve the strategic initiatives that aim to support all stakeholders to enable them to contribute to the development of the technical and informatics aspects that are in line with world class technology,” Al Qaed said.
“When it comes to selecting speakers, this year, it is considered as the largest forum in terms of participants which reached up to 800 in the forum and workshops, whereas previous years 400-500 attended the past forums,” Al Qaed, added.
He also stated that the Kingdom gives high priority to the ICT sector and employ technology for the advancement of the government work and development of the national economy, especially that the sector has created 10, 000 jobs in Bahrain and contributed with over $1billion to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) throughout the years of 2005-2011.
“This year’s eGovernment Excellence Awards is launched for its 6th year with enhanced criteria with easier procedures to open doors to the largest number of participations. The award reached a maturity level to become a knowledge-transfer programme, that no not aims to select the winning projects but to support and develop the non-projects,” eGovernment Authority Vice CEO Dr. Zakareya Ahmed Al Khaja, said.
Within the framework of providing more facilities to users of eGovernment, the eGovernment Authority announces today the launch of the first ePayment service via Smartphone applications. It is a service, in collaboration with Electricity and Water Authority, for enquiries and payments of electricity and water bills. Moreover, it is possible for customers to pay multiple bills at once in an easy and clear process.
Al Qaed said that with the authority’s continuous efforts, it was able to launch two applications – in its first experience. Last year, the authority was able to launch six applications during the forum. This year, five applications are launched, where three are ePayment applications.
In line with the inauguration of this year’s forum, the authority launched an advanced mobile application with new features allowing participants to become familiar with all the details of the forum – comprising speakers; workshops; registration as delegates, speakers or sponsors at the forum activities – with ease and convenience at any time and place.
The upgraded application offers new features enabling users to identify several types of reminders of working sessions and workshops before the event begins – by adjusting the alarm, SMS or via e-mail. Additionally, it provides more details about Bahrain IT Expo as it is one of the largest forums where senior officers, ICT experts and a variety of global companies gather together.
The app. offers a platform for effective interaction and communication in a more comprehensive perspective. Such application assists users with note-taking, giving feedbacks on forum activities and knowledge-sharing with others.