As part of efforts to make use of this technology in some vital sectors as health, tourism and communication, the Ministry of Communication and Technology is planning to launch a project to set up "The E-Government Gate" to help provide some services with the cooperation of several state ministries and institutions. The project envisages setting up 'data gates and state services' on the Internet to serve as main access points for both the citizens and state agencies as well. This mechanism would also secure credibility and privacy of the data as well as the information exchanged between users.
Work in this project started in mid 2004 and is expected to be finished by 2008. It needs infrastructure, basic software to run and administer. A national work team, consisting of experts from different state agencies interested in technological services, would be set up to outline the main objectives of the project and follow up on its implementation.
Each state ministry would be responsible for outlining its own specific applications and following up on it. The gate would also include some new services which will be offered directly through electronic means, particularly for the tourism sector as well as some traditional services which will be redesigned to conform to electronic methods.
The work has been outlined in three stages: the first during 2004 during which the national work team was formed from state ministries and agencies. The second stage during 2005 where concentration would be on preparation of needed standards for the e-government gate as well as preparation of the infrastructure and software for the automation of work and the launch of the e-government gate. The third stage in 2007 where some services would be turned into online services with the addition of new services which depend on available data systems.
The experts hope the project would yield positive results and serve as a viable project representing the first national initiative in the field of e-government.
Quelle: Arabic News, 10.08.2005
