UAE, Bahrain share honours at GCC eGov awards

By V L Srinivasan

Muscat, Dec 26: Showcasing the best of their achievements in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, the Kingdom of Bahrain and the UAE have bagged five prizes each at the first GCC eGovernment Excellence Awards which concluded in Muscat on Wednesday.

The various categories in which Bahrain won the prizes are; third place in the eServices for eBirth project, first place in eMaturity for the eGovernment Service Delivery Platforms project, third place in eEconomy for the eInvestor project, second place in the eProjects for the Najem Integrated Crime Investigation System project and a special mention for its eTendering project.

The UAE won second prize in the eServices category (DEWA eBill Payment) and third prizes in eContent (eContent GCAA website), eMaturity (eRTA) and eProjects (SAP IS-Utilities and Customer Relationship Management), in addition to a special mention for its Abu Dhabi eGovernment portal in the eContent category.

Speaking to Muscat Daily after receiving the awards, a visibly elated CEO of eGovernment Authority of the Kingdom of Bahrain Mohamed Ali al Qaed said: "This shows our country has set up a benchmark in the field of ICT. It also vindicates our stand that Bahrain has been progressing on the right path. The choice of selecting these projects were based on their performance at national level competitions, which were held in May this year.”

He continued saying that the eGovernment Conference had provided an opportunity to review the most prominent UAE, Bahrain share honours at GCC eGov awards achievements for the projects and eGovernment programmes in the GCC countries and created a platform for positive dialogue between workers in the eGovernment sector and the beneficiaries of those projects.

The CEO of Qatar's ICT delegation Eng Ahmed Mohammed al Kuwari said that they would strive hard to get more awards at the next GCC eGovernment Conference.

Oman was third in eMaturity category for its eGovernment Services Portal and second in the eEconomy category for its MSM Mobile Applications and received a special mention for the best eContent (Ministry of Regional Municipalities and Water Resources website).

Saudi Arabia won four awards including second prize in the eContent category for the Jeddah Municipal portal, first prize in the eEconomy category for its Saudi payment system, first prize in the eProjects category for its Government Service Bus and received a special mention for its eEconomy project Saudi Electronic Data Interchange Project.

Qatar won three prizes including two first prizes in eServices (Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation) and eContent (Islam Web) in addition to a special mention for best eContent (Supreme Council for ICT) while Kuwait won two special mentions for best eContent for its Ministry of Justice website and in eMaturity in the Ministry of ICT Infrastructure.