Al Sharekh receives award from World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS)

The World Summit Award (WSA) organized a big Award Gala for the distribution of its awards for 2005-2007. The Gala, held in the Tunisian capital to coincide with WSIS events convened under the umbrella of the United Nations, was attended by Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Zien El-Abdeen Bin Ali, Tunisian President, as well as many other presidents and world leaders.

His Excellency Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa, presented the E-Inclusion award to Mohammed Abdul Rahman Al-Sharekh, Founder & Chairman of Sakhr Software Co. This is the first award of its kind worldwide to be presented in the area of translation engines.

The World Summit Award Grand Jury, consisting of 34 experts, issued a statement last month at the conclusion of its meetings indicating that it has conducted an intense process of evaluation of over 1000 candidates from 168 countries resulting in the selection of 40 products and websites on the World Wide Web to receive this international award. Sakhr's instant translation technology was chosen as the only technological engine worldwide to be awarded this great honor.

Mohammed Al-Sharekh expressed his pride at receiving this award by stating that this award carries Kuwait's name as well as that of Sakhr. Upon receiving the award, Al-Sharekh reiterated that his company, which was launched from Kuwait, has always endeavored to attract the exceptional talent and creativity available throughout the Arab World.

He added that Sakhr is now taking global steps towards affirming its pioneering position in the field of Arabic IT through its vision of bringing an end to the digital divide between those who have access to modern information technology, and those who have neither access nor the capability to use it.

"There exists a vital need to bridge the gap between developed and less developed nations. This need is even more vital after recent developments the world has witnessed over the past few years. We have found in technology a way in which to enhance knowledge democracy, and to encourage mutual understanding between nations and cultures,"

Al-Sharekh added.

The translation engine developed by Sakhr is based on the extensive experience and advanced technologies Sakhr has accumulated over many years in the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP). This is a major element on which three of the most important Arabic/English and English/ Arabic translation programs are built available to.

The first is aimed at individuals and can be found at www.ajeeb.com; the second is geared for small business enterprises, a special edition of which will be launched to the markets shortly; and the third, SET - Sakhr Enterprise Translation solution - is aimed at large business enterprises.

WSIS awards are distributed amongst specialized content categories, these are: e-Learning; e-Culture; e-Science; e-Government; e-Health; e-Business; e-Entertainment; and finally, e-Inclusion, the award which will be presented to Sakhr's instant translation engine. For more information on these awards, please visit www.wsis-award,.org