Deputy Prime Minister HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa on Wednesday chaired the Information and Communication Technology (ICT)'s High Committee meeting in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa and committee members.

The committee reviewed a detailed report highlighting the efforts and factors that contributed to the Kingdom of Bahrain’s obtaining the excellent results in the UN e-Government Report2018.

HH Shaikh Mohammed praised the cooperation among governmental entities noting the efforts of the Ministry of Education and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) in their speedy response in the formation of joint subcommittees comprising the relevant institutions that contributed to Bahrain’s maintaining its very high rating in the country index. Bahrain was ranked as the 26th globally, the fifth in the Asian continent and fourth globally in the communication infrastructure index. His Highness affirmed the need proceed with implementation of the recommendations and requirements of the UN e-Government Report for this year to maintain Bahrain’s advanced rating as in previous years’ indices.

The committee reviewed latest progress in Bahrain’s e-Government International Forum2018 to hosted under the auspices of His Highness and organised by the Information and e-Government Authority on October 7-8. The forum aims to exchange expertise as well as latest technological progress in cloud computing, digital transformation,  block-chain technology, data analysis, cyber security, to be presented by 20 speakers from the public and private sectors and civil society organisations.

The committee was updated on the Information Technology Governance Committee accomplishments over the previous three years, including the reduction in purchase expenditures, recurrent overheads of information technology reaching a total of BD 13.9 million. BD 6.8 million have been saved in purchases and information technology projects.

Also, BD 1.7 million were saved in recurrent expenditures. The committee also reviewed key factors and updated policies that contributed to this reduction.

The committee endorsed during its meeting the e-Government Index as well as the elements of the National Strategy of e-Government 2019-2021.

The committee discussed latest progress in the Private Notary project including the aspects for development and the project’s output in addition to the Government of Bahrain’s agreement with Microsoft.