Key meeting mulls strategies to ‘transform into digital economy’

Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Information and Communication Technology, HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, chaired the 14th meeting of the committee yesterday. In light of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa’s directives regarding digital economy and artificial intelligence (AI), the committee reviewed a report on the requirements of the readiness index, laws, policies, strategies, procedures, infrastructure and human resources.

The committee also reviewed e-Government and Committee for Information suggestions to develop a national strategy and establish frameworks for governance of this important area, in addition to reviewing proposals in the field of developing legislation, training, and academic programmes to support emerging institutions to invest in the field of AI. The committee highlighted the role played by the Information and eGovernment Authority in enhancing cybersecurity and implementing the relevant decisions.

The committee was provided with a detailed explanation of the national system project for jobseekers, which is implemented by the authority in cooperation with the Ministry of Labor and Social Development. The project aims to develop a portal to facilitates all services of recruitment. They were briefed on the new digital services in the Electricity and Water Authority (EWA), including services related to requests for reconnecting and moving to a new address without the need of personal presence of the beneficiaries of these services.

The committee reviewed key projects undertaken by the Information and e-Government Authority in cooperation with Bahrain national e-transactions network (BENEFIT)   aimed to develop the banking services including important services and the provision of electronic mechanism to verify identity and check the veracity of information to financial service providers which is the first of its type in the Arab region, in addition to the credit service report which facilitates obtaining personal credit status report aimed to notify individuals about their financial obligations.

The committee also reviewed latest developments regarding preparations ahead of the upcoming UN assessment in the eGovernment readiness index as well as key recommendations to boost the Kingdom’s positon in this important international index. The committee also reviewed most significant statistics in the field of government transactions. The total number of financial transactions across the electronic channels since the start of the year reached circa BD130 million that is an increase of 32 per cent compared with the same period last year.

The statistics showed that the total number of e-transactions exceeded 1300,000. Following the discussion and review of the topics, HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, President of the Information and Telecommunication High Committee as well as the members of the committee expressed their appreciation of the Information and eGovernment Authority for its efforts in the achievements that contribute to the provision of e-services to the citizens and residents and facilitation of transactions in the various fields.