11th GCC e-Government Forum opens in Dubai today

Organized by Datamatix, the forum will be held from 21-25 May 2005 and will discuss the future challenges and strategies for GCC e-Government initiatives.

The forum will focus on the latest e-Government developments & initiatives. It highlights how nations are preparing their communities, businesses and managements using e-Government.

Ali Al Kamali, Managing Director, Datamatix Group. The forum was opened by Ali Al Kamali, Managing Director, Datamatix Group. The audience of more than 500 regional professionals at the event was welcomed by Mr. Joe Clabby, Vice President, Summit Strategies USA and Datamatix International Advisor. Speaking about the event, for which he is also the moderator, Joe Clabby said, "Over the next 5 days of the conference, global experts will present keynotes and case studies on a wide range of issues such as e-Government ROI, e-Readiness, workforce development, m-Government, integrated services, change management, online service delivery, redesigning e-Government business and citizen services, GCC infrastructure and security issues and much more."

In his opening keynote address, Ali Al Kamali presented a research report on the status of e-Government in the GCC. In his report, he examined the GCC free trade challenges, what technology offers GCC women, GCC e-Government Portals and their services. The Datamatix e-Government Survey reviewed whether GCC e-Government projects have brought any difference to the quality of service, what the factors are limiting success of e-Government services and whether GCC e-Government services are stopping bureaucracy in government organizations.

Rehab Lootah, Senior Business Manager, Dubai e-Government Rehab Lootah, Senior Business Manager, Dubai e-Government addressed the topic 'Dubai e-Government - Today and Tomorrow' On behalf of Salem Al Shair, Director of e-Services. Speaking about Dubai e-Government's vision, she said, "One of our strategic goals is to adopt a customer centric approach that is aimed to increase e-Services awareness and engage our customers in policy making and governance processes. Engaging our customers will allow us to incorporate customer needs and expectations formally in our governance processes."

James W. Jarrett, Vice President, Legal and Government Affairs, Intel Corporation The next session on 'How technology innovations and e-Government can improve the quality of government operations' was presented by Mr. James W. Jarrett, Vice President, Legal and Government Affairs, Intel Corporation. In his presentation, he spoke about how Wireless Digital Cities are beginning to emerge as the next chapter in the evolution of e-government. "The cities that modernize through adoption of technology are realizing the benefits of transforming their business processes through: reduction of day-to-day administrative costs; increased operational efficiency; better interoperability through communication; increased productivity and more effective delivery of services" he said.

Mohamed Laher, Senior Solution Architect, Public Sector Adaptive Enterprise, Hewlett-Packard Mohamed Laher, Senior Solution Architect, Public Sector Adaptive Enterprise, Hewlett-Packard spoke on 'Creating an e-Government Infrastructure - Enabling Government Innovation.' He spoke about the challenges of e-Government and introduced the e-Government framework. "e-Government is the core to the modernizing government agenda," he said.

Dr. Ehab Moustafa, Principal Consultant, Smart Square Innovation Centre, UAE Dr. Ehab Moustafa, Principal Consultant, Smart Square Innovation Centre, UAE addressed the session on 'The Missing Links for Success of e-Government and Business.' He answered questions such as why e-Government projects are not just information technology projects, Why it is more about reinventing government processes with the use of technology, and why e-Business is slow to progress in the region and how e-Government will succeed. "For e-Business to progress in the region we need legal readiness, policies and e-Commerce infrastructure; success of the e-Business model has nothing to do with the technology" he added.

A case study on Bahrain e-Government - 'e-Bahrain: Vision to Reality' was presented jointly by Mohammed Ali Al Qaed, Director of Computer Operations, Central Informatics Organization, Bahrain and Isa Abdul Rahman, Senior Manager, Batelco, Bahrain.

Mohammed Ali Al Qaed, Director of Computer Operations, Central Informatics Organization, Bahrain Isa Abdul Rahman, Senior Manager, Batelco, Bahrain Jens Mortensen, Vice President, Public Services & e-Government, Oracle EMEA Jens Mortensen, Vice President, Public Services & e-Government, Oracle EMEA addressed the session on 'e-Government - Lessons learned - and what to expect from next generation of e-Government.' He provided an overview of the status of e-Government worldwide, recognized paths to e-Government and challenges for e-Government in the future. During his presentation, he said, "Governments are challenged by a need for impacting the society and business, not simply through laws and regulations - but through interactions with their constituents and through their behaviour and culture." He also presented case studies of ORACLE implementations in e-Government.

Ali Al Shuraidah, Asst Sec. Gen. for Info Centre & Decision Support, Council Of Ministers - General Secretariat, Kuwait

Ali Al Shuraidah, Asst Sec. Gen. for Info Centre & Decision Support, Council Of Ministers - General Secretariat, Kuwait spoke on 'An Approach to Seamless Integration for e-Government Implementation.' He presented a case study of e-Kuwait's targeted services and gave a detailed outline of integration techniques, concepts, concerns and solutions. He said, "The seamless integration of e-Government services poses many strategic and technical challenges."

Nauman Ahmad, Government Sector Specialist, Microsoft South Gulf spoke on '.Net in Government - E-Government Portal Development Strategy.' During his presentation, he said, "The reality of change is that success is a moving target and agility is the critical IT metric. IT is increasingly central to how government operations are done and how new value is created. New challenges for IT at the centre of government are - creating e-Government, adapting rapidly with changing requirements and delivering new capabilities by leveraging existing IT investments"

The session on 'Secure and Manage the e-Government Infrastructure' was addressed by Bjarne Rasmussen, VP of Technology Services, Computer Associates. "The challenges that e-Government projects face are security (identity and access), infrastructure management, creating robust e-Government applications and cost effectiveness. It is important to ensure infrastructure is always on, always secure, providing service to citizens" he said. He also presented a case study on the Belgian Federal Government's initiative 'New Technologies at the service of government and its clients'

The final session of the day dealt with 'Business Process Re-engineering Strategies for E-Government' presented by Mr. Todd A. Vancil, Director, Global Technical Sales, Fuego, UK.

Speaking about the event, Ali Al Kamali, Managing Director, Datamatix said, "Over the past 10 years, the conference has come to address crucial issues facing successful e-Government initiatives in the GCC. It has been our aim to bring the best practices and cutting-edge knowledge from across the world to the forum for regional professionals."

"Day one of the forum featured several high-quality presentations and case studies by e-Government experts from the GCC and abroad. Delegates were provided with useful insights into the challenges facing e-Government in the future, infrastructure, integration and re-engineering strategies for GCC e-Government implementations."

Among the issues that will be discussed on the second day of the conference are next generation information systems, m-Government, e-Government networks and case studies from KSA and Estonia.

Over the 5 days of the event, more than 1000 professionals including top designation executives, senior government officials, ministerial delegations, CIOs, IT managers, business leaders, analysts as well as academics from more than 100 leading organizations are expected to attend the forum. It is the largest meeting ground for professionals from the regional e-Government sector and provides participants with many opportunities for networking and building business contacts.

The event is being sponsored and supported by leading organizations such as Dubai e-Government Committee, Dubai Municipality, Dubai Naturalization & Residency Department, Oracle, Microsoft, Intel, Computer Associates, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, TIBCO, DTK Computers, Tejari, Middle East Fuego & BMI Systems, TrippLite, Smart Square, House of Development, Huawei, Gulf Data International, Viewnet technologies, Ducont, C1 India, Star Systems, Harf, Arab Link, Al Eqtisadiah and Travelex.