On Sunday, 12 June 2011, in Jabrin Hall, at the Intercontinental Hotel in Muscat, the Information Technology Authority (ITA) hosted a workshop, under the auspices of HE Ali Masoud Al Sunaidi, Minister of Sports Affairs and Chairman of ITA. Conducted by the Danish Technologies Institutes (DTI), the workshop entitled ‘Modern eGovernment’ was attended by 22 Undersecretaries, director generals, and other top government officials and senior management of ITA. Dr. Salim Al Ruzaiqi, CEO of the Information Technology Authority (ITA), presented the opening speech.

In his speech, Dr. Salim Al Ruzaiqi said, “It is essential to be aware of the immense opportunities and potentials offered by information communication technologies (ICT) for the purpose of improving services, achieving integration between different government institutions, facilitating contact between government institutions and Omani nationals, and enabling members of society to acquire information and services in an easy, rapid, safe and reliable manner. This contributes largely to enhancing the march towards comprehensive development which the sultanate is witnessing nowadays, especially given that the present IT age requires transparency, communication, interaction and participation between citizens and government institutions.

“It is for this reason that His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said – May God protect him and keep him in His care – recently issued Royal Directives to set up special departments at the government entities. Such departments will be responsible for establishing contact with the citizens, receiving applications, identifying needs, and helping in the fulfilment of the same. Unquestionably, such communication will be significantly bolstered through the application of modern e-solutions which provide interactive channels between government and its citizens and will contribute to the development of performances and services in such a manner that takes into consideration the actual needs of society.”, he continued.

Dr. Salim Al Ruzaiqi noted further, “Websites of government institutions have become the interfaces through which many nationals can establish contact with different government entities and through which they can obtain various services. These websites are also considered an effective and successful means to enable government to stay in touch with the citizens and identify their opinions, needs and suggestions.”

Keeping in line with the e.oman Strategy and the desire to support public entities in achieving their goals in eGovernment, three key objectives of this workshop were anticipated. First, public services must be relevant or applicable for users. Otherwise, efforts to establish a robust eGovernment will certainly fail. A second goal of the workshop is to inform about the methods for using ICT as an enabler for government to communicate and really connect with citizens, as per the reference of His Majesty’s recent directives – eParticipation is key. Lastly, the role of public entities for the inclusion of people with disabilities in the information society was examined. 

Comprising the workshop, three DTI speakers took to the podium. Beginning the morning session, Mr. Jeremy Millard gave a presentation entitled ‘Leading Edge eGovernment: Innovative and Citizen-centric Services’. Modern eGovernment is changing rapidly from its former technical-focus, primarily concerned with putting existing services online, to become today an important strategy for improving economic, social and cultural development. Leading eGovernment countries are breaking down back-office silos and sharing data and resources amongst themselves to reduce costs and do more for less. The main focus is however on dramatically improving the quality and outreach of services for citizens and businesses using the principles of citizen-centricity. Many countries are also using ICT to improve governance, to open up new channels of communication with citizens, and to enable beneficial collaboration with other stakeholders in all aspects of their work.

Following Mr. Millard’s presentation, Mr. Morten Meyerhoff Nielsen, spoke on ‘eParticipation: Openness, Transparency and Dialogue’. In light of His Majesty’s April 2011 Royal Directive to develop citizen communication channels in the Omani public sector, this presentation outlined different ICT enabled methods of communicating with citizens and stakeholders. The presentation focused on the opportunities and benefits of eParticipation, the importance of communication, and the different channels available, defining some of these used in Oman today. The presentation highlighted current international best practices and how Omani government institutions can use technology in implementing His Majesty’s directives.

Rounding out the day’s presentations, Mr. Richard Warren gave a talk about web accessibility, ‘Accessibility – Web must be for all’. Essentially, this session focused on how computers and the Internet have dramatically changed the lives of disabled people, following International standards, complying with the law and understanding the needs of this segment. It concluded with suggestions on suitable approaches towards web accessibility followed by a short video.

At the end of the presentations, there was an open floor discussion and closing remarks by Dr. Salim Al Ruzaiqi, ITA CEO, and Mr. Jeremy Millard, on behalf of the Danish Technological Institute.