The Pan Arab Web Awards to be held this year at Burj Al Arab Dubai

This event is designed to promote creativity, intellectual property rights (IPR) awareness and higher standards of Arabic web design. The Awards will be presented to the best web sites of Arabic companies in 16 categories, which include financial institutions, government organisations, health services, media and international organisations.

The spread of digital literacy is increasing in the Middle East, as more than 2 billion of the region's 6.5 billion inhabitants have access to the internet. As a result, many more businesses are transferring their operations online and using websites as a platform to launch, advertise and conduct their business procedures.

Grading will be applied by a jury comprised of experts in the field of web design and will be based on special criteria that evaluate high-level standards of web design.

"In the Digital Age where websites are used by many companies, aspects such as layout and user-friendliness are crucial to projecting a positive image of the owning company. By establishing the Awards, we are aiming to protect creativity and showcase innovation in addition to promoting ICT adoption by raising the standards of company websites and encouraging people to use online resources,"

said Pierre Moukarzel, Chairman, Pan Arab Web Awards Committee.

Commenting on sponsoring the Award, Jawad Al Redha, Co-Chairman, Business Software Alliance, Middle East said, "As a leading anti-piracy promoter, we are proud to lend our support to events such as the Pan Arab Web Awards, which reward creativity and imagination and provide a valuable incentive not to copy but to innovate. The event also promotes a safe and legal digital world by highlighting the financial and intellectual potential of a flourishing digital economy as it is well known that software piracy and innovation theft produce disastrous consequences in terms of lost revenue for many economies."

"Great minds build great projects and these Awards will help to establish new professional and international standards of excellence in web design by attracting the interest of many web designers and domain owners from all over the region," Moukarzel added.