The Sultanate of Oman won 7 awards yesterday at the 3^rd GCC eGovernment Award, Conference and Exhibition currently underway from 9-11 December 2013. Taking place at the Intercontinental Hotel, Festival City­-Dubai, the awards were announced on the first day of the event honoring the leading eServices and the outstanding ICT solutions across the GCC countries. Oman, represented by the Ministry of Interior, Muscat Municipality, Public Authority for Consumer Protection and the Information Technology Authority (ITA), remarkably won 7 awards out of 14 categories.

“It is no surprise that Omani Government organizations make it to the top honor awards again. Just a short while ago Oman received two UN Public Service Awards in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The win today of new 7 awards is definitely a source of pride for every Omani and, at the same time, a call to work harder,” Dr. Salim Sultan Al Ruzaiqi, CEO of ITA and Head of Oman’s delegation commented.

The winning organizations and their awards are as follows: Ministry of Interior for Best Government eService for its eElections system; Ministry of Manpower and Pension Authority of Social Insurance (PASI) for Best Government Interoperable Service with their Employment Collaboration Project; Ministry of Commerce and Industry for Best Government-to-Government Shared Service with its One Stop Shop system (OSS); Higher Education Admission Center (HEAC) for its data exchange portal; Muscat Municipality for Best Government eParticipation Initiative with the Talk To Muscat call center; Information Technology Authority (ITA) for the Best e-Initiative for ITA’s eInclusion project, and lastly, the excellence award which was awarded to the Public Authority for Consumer Protection (PACP).

Speaking about Oman’s participation in the 3^rd GCC eGovernment Award, Conference and Exhibition Dr. Al Ruzaiqi added: “This event comes to continue the efforts of the previous two editions to serve the goals of the GCC countries to shift to eGovernment. The fact that this award honoring ceremony has been organized alongside the two-day conference is by itself a huge step to create a culture of positive competition among GCC countries’ eGovernments, in an effort to achieve a better ICT experience for each and every beneficiary.”

The first day agenda included the opening speech by the host country delivered by the chairman of the UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), and followed up by another speech by the Secretariat General of the corporation council for the Arab states of the Gulf. After that, honoring winners of the top eGovernment awards began. The agenda concluded by opening the accompanying exhibition where all the participating countries showcase their current ICT initiatives and projects.

Tomorrow is the opening of the GCC eGovernment Conference which has been established in an effort to gather GCC ICT policy makers, international organizations and those in the ICT business community to exchange and share ideas and experiences in eGovernment applications and services.