14th GCC eGovernment and eServices Forum set to begin on Saturday

Organized by Datamatix Group, the 5-day forum aims to support and promote the development of e-government and e-services in the region and will be held under the theme "Top 100 eGovernment and eServices projects."

Now in its 14th edition, the forum is widely recognized as the premier event addressing information, issues and concerns regarding e-government in the GCC and is well attended by representatives of government organizations and the ICT sector.

The main sponsors of this year's event are Dubai eGovernment and Xerox, the world's leading document management technology and services enterprise.

The directors of both organizations will also be participating in the event in a speaking capacity. Regarding their involvement in e-government, Xerox stated: "Xerox Global Services has the experience and proven process solutions to help governments take a fresh look at federal programs, policies, functions, and activities across all major areas of the federal budget—to find efficiencies and drive improvements."

Genius Soft, Crimson Logic, Solutions Middle East, Captaris, Genalto, and Oracle are co-sponsoring.

Mr. Ghassan Surkhi, Regional Account Manager of Captaris Inc, who will speak at the forum about Capataris' work with the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said "This strategic event is the best platform to discuss and share how Electronic Document Delivery streamlined processes and empowered ADCCI with expedited information.

Commenting on the current state of e-government, Mr. Ziad Elkhalid, Business Development Manager for Public Sector Industry - Middle East & Africa - Oracle, who is also scheduled to speak, said "Today's government managers face increased expectations from citizens, businesses, elected officials, and employees. Pressed to provide services and information quickly and cost effectively, managers are often saddled with legacy information systems that fail to provide an enterprise wide view of government.", and added "Oracle's Solutions will help government agencies enable centralized and front-end citizen focused services; provide a comprehensive view of citizens across departments and agencies; reduce the cost of service delivery; and enable performance-driven government", while Muriel Nassif, G.M. of GeniusSoft, remarked, "Changes in technologies challenge government agencies to be innovative and creative and also to continuously improve their performances. Through these kinds of events, Genius Soft aims to assist various government decision-makers in planning new e-services for their organizations."

Speaking about the forum, Ali Al Kamali Managing Director Datamatix Group said, "Over the past few years, GCC nations have begun to recognize the important role that e-government can play in economic development and have set about developing e-government readiness strategies and investing in the necessary technological infrastructure. As a result, e-government readiness in this region has steadily and significantly improved, but more e-government awareness initiatives aimed at educating the general public and government employees about e-services and making sure that they are accessible to all are needed to ensure that the benefits of e-government are fully realized and are an essential factor in achieving all of our development goals." He went on to say "Another important issue is security, which remains as a top concern when extending and developing new e-services - particularly ones that involve financial and other transactions which transmit highly confidential information. And these are just a couple of the many important topics that will be up for discussion in this forum."

The forum, which will showcase e-government developments in the Middle East region and introduce the latest technology, innovations, solutions and practices in the field, will feature key-note sessions led by Mr. Salem Khamis Al-Shair, Director - Dubai eGovernment, who will deliver the first key note, Success & Failure of GCC eGovernment and eBusiness 2007-2008, and Dr. Majid Bin Abdullah Al-Mishari Al-Saud, Chairman of the Board - Saudi Computer Society, who will discuss eGovernment Implementation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Additionally, the conference will feature panel discussions and additional presentations by government and industry representatives including:

Sheikh Aimen Ahmed Al Hosni, Directory General - Oman Ministry of Civil Service, CIO - IT Managers and GCC eGovernment Projects Committee Challenges; Mr. Antoine Hraoui, Board Member & CEO - EVER ME, Why Does the Success of GCC eGovernment Depend on Business Process Re-engineering (BPR)?; Mr. Nader Alyani, Director, Middle East - Gov3 Limited, Next Generation Telecom Applications for GCC eServices and eGovernment & New eGovernment Projects Implementation (from "Readiness" to "Lessons learned"); Mr. Stephen Chng, Regional Business Development Director - CrimsonLogic Pte. Ltd.(co-sponsor), A Successful Global eGovernment BPR Case Study; Mr. Joe Dignan World Wide e-Government Lead, World Wide Public Sector - Microsoft, Creating a Solutions Ecosystem for e-Government; Mr. Shaik Umar Abdul Salam, Centre Director (Middle East) International Operations - Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), Case Study of Singapore - e-Enabling Government through Strategic Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for Successful Service Delivery; Mr. Jeongwon Yoon, Director - National Information Society Agency (NIA), Korea, Asian eGovernment Case Study: Present and Future of eGovernment of Korea; Mr. Ziad Elkhalid, Business Development Manager for Public Sector Industry - Middle East & Africa - Oracle (co-sponsor), Customer Value through Efficient Government; Mr. Charles Watt, Senior Director e-Business - Scottish Enterprise World Bank, eGovernment Implementation and Project Management; Mr. David Wilde, CIO and Head of Information and Customer Services - London Borough of Waltham Forest, Global eGovernment Case Study: (from "Readiness" to "Lessons learned"); Mr. Ghassan Surkhi Regional Account Manager - GCC Captaris, Inc. (co-sponsor) Regional Case Study: Successful eDocument Delivery in a Government Industry; Mr. Carsten Gelzinus, Director - Xerox Global Services(main sponsor), Global Case Study on eGovernment and eServices; Prof. SH (Basie) von Solms, Ph.D, FCSSA, MBCS, President International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Academy for Information Technology - University of Johannesburg, South Africa, Building A Trust Environment for GCC eGovernment Projects - Privacy, Security and Authentication; Mr. Jorge Sebastiao, CEO of RiskG and Founder ESGULF, Bahrain, IT Security Planning for eGovernment Projects; and Dr. Mohamed Dafir El Kettani, Professor National School for Informatics & System Analysis (ENSIAS) - University Mohammed, Morocco, Regional Case Study on eGovernment IT Security.