MANAMA: The visiting former Premier of Sweden John Fredrik Reinfeldt praised Bahrain’s success in eGovernment and shows keenness to replicate this model for his country to take the eGovermnet services to the next level of excellence.
The praise came as the visiting Former Swedish Premier delivered a keynote address at the Bahrain International eGovernment Forum 2015 opened in Manama and said that he was keen on transfering Bahrain’s leading experience in eGovernment to his country.
Earlier, Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Information and Communication Technology, patronized the opening ceremony of the well-attended Bahrain International eGovernment Forum 2015 held at the Isa Cultural Centre.
The highly-esteemed event was attended by Kuwaiti Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Mubarak Al Sabah, Swedish Former Prime Minister John Fredrik Reinfeldt, Ambassador-Head of European Union Delegation to the GCC Region Adam Kulach and nearly 700 delegates from different countries.
The forum was organized by the eGovernment Authority (eGA) in association with Bahrain Society of Engineers, Projects Management Institute – Arabian Gulf Chapter, and YouthTech. The opening ceremony also included the presence of Deputy Premier H.H. Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Deputy Premier Shaikh Khalid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, several ministers, members of the Council of Representatives and the Shura Council, senior officials and members of the diplomatic corps.
His Highness declared that it’s a pleasant concurrence that this year’s forum coincided with the passage of one decade since the establishment of SCICT; the initiation of the government’s policy and directions towards the conversion into electronic transactions and application of best practices in the eGovernment field.
“Bahrain has within a relatively very short period of time made successive accomplishments globally-speaking, by being ranked the 18th position among United Nations 192 members according to the United Nations eGovernment Survey leading European and Asian countries,” he added.
Reinfeldt reflected on the Swedish eGovernment experience and how ICT was utilized to develop Sweden during his official period. He discussed the challenges of eGovernment, urbanization, population and digitization. Calling for effective use of eGovernment to create more jobs, he pointed out that the Bahrain International eGovernment Forum is the only event mentioned in the United Nations eGovernment Survey.
“I am very impressed to see what has been achieved in eGovernment and I will transfer the eGovernment experience of Bahrain to my country,” he added.
During the ceremony, His Highness Shaikh Mohammed honoured 16 winners of the eGovernment Excellence Award 2015 which rewarded three various sectors: Government, Multi and the Citizen Sector. The Government Sector category comprises the winner Ministry of Education for its website as the ‘Best eContent’ award; General Organization for Youth and Sports (GOYS) for its eServices as the ‘Best eService’ award; Ministry of Works, Municipalities and Urban Planning for its Enterprise Asset Management System (EAMS) project as the ‘Best eProject’ award; along with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the ‘eParticipation’ award.
The Multi Sectors category honored Suhail Ghazi Algosaibi for his DreamBody Centre project as the ‘eEntrepreneur’ award; Child’s Wish Society as the winner of ‘eNGO’ award; Legislation and Legal Opinion Commission for the Elections 2014 App which won the ‘Best Application for Smart Devices’ award; VIVA for its VIVA Self-Care App which won the other ‘Best Application for Smart Devices’ award; National Bank of Bahrain for its Mobile Banking Service App which won the third ‘Best Application for Smart Devices’ award; Economic Development Board which won the ‘eEconomy’ award; and Gulf Petrochemical Industries Co. (GPIC) as the second winner of the ‘eEconomy’ award.
The Citizens category included Best eConcept Award for Noora Mohammed Butti for her application of (iSave) another Best eConcept Award for Jawaher Jassim AlKhaja for her My eJob Bahrain, and for Liliane Mumtaz Daqqaq for her application of (iSaaf) mobile app. eCitizen Award was given to Mohammed Sh. Ishaq Alabbasi given to having the highest volume of transactions through the eGovernment portal in one year; along with Jamal Abdullah AlKooheji for having the highest number of transactions through the eGovernment portal in one year.
His Highness Shaikh Mohammed also honored the forum’s sponsors who included Primer Sponsor Economic Development Board; Diamond Sponsors GBM, Avaya, STS, Microsoft, Bahrain Polytechnic, Shura Council and AlMoayyed Computers.
A panel discussion along with six more plenary sessions continues on Monday with internationally and locally distinguished speakers. The Deputy Prime Minister will also inaugurate Bahrain IT Expo 2015 on Tuesday (March 18th) at the Paddock Hall in Bahrain International Circuit. In conjunction with the exhibition’s eight workshops which will be held over three consecutive days from 17th to 19th March to discuss future technology trends in the field of smart cities and the best practices in eGovernment with discussions of GCC-EU prospects and cooperation in the field of research and innovation in projects and services.
Bahrain hosted numerous United Nations delegations that came to benefit from Bahrain’s experience in building capacity – a step that affirms the trust of the international community in Bahrain and its international position attained in this field. Bahrain has been chosen as the first country to embrace the comprehensive visit of several UN-led delegations comprising representatives from countries around the world.