Government | Saturday 16 May, 2015 8:55 am |

Amidst the celebration of 26 years of unwavering commitment and success in knowledge orientation and business building, Datamatix brings to the region the 21st edition of the GCC sGovernment and sServices Conference. The 21st GCC sGovernment and sServices Conference underlines the journey of the government and business organizations in the region towards smartGovernment.

The conference is sponsored by: DEWA(Dubai Electricity and Water Authority),Imex Systems Inc.,Naseej, King Fahad Medical City, STC, University of Hail, Saudi German Hospitals, Brother, Sejel, Canadian University Dubai, Air Arabia, Skycom, Exceed, Almarai, Arabian Farms Development, Carlsbad, Glen'da, DUC Consulting, Al Riyadh Newspaper.

On day 1, Mr. Ali Al Kamali, Managing Director of Datamatix opened the conference with a welcome speech extending his pleasure and gratitude for the support and love bestowed on Datamatix since the past 26 years. He elaborated the journey of Datamatix as a knowledge service provider in the Middle East and thanked all the intellectuals, supporters, counterparts and patrons of Datamatix for their unwavering spirit and support for the past quarter century. He said, "In line with the aspirations to shoulder a shared responsibility to develop the next generation of sGovernment services in the region, to promote, appreciate, and develop a culture of excellence in all the s-government sectors for the effective application of modern technologies and to raise the state apparatus efficiency by providing automated information systems to its citizens, we have gathered here in to address achievements and celebration of yet another successful year of the 21st GCC sGovernment and sServices Conference.

Since the past 2 decades, the sGov conference and Middle East sGov Awards have been continuously striving to recognize various efforts of the government and business organizations in the region by bringing them to a common platform and highlighting their invaluable contributions towards sGovernment services that can serve as role models to the region. This year, once again we move forward to create new role models, establish innovative ideas, and explore the successful sGov case studies in the region that will positively upraise the standards of sGov in the region."

The conference began with the regional keynote speech of Dr. Eesa Mohammed Bastak, President of the University of Dubai on 'Creation of Prosperous and Smarter Cities'. In his keynote speech he spoke on the development of synchronized management strategies that could support the government, private and public sector organizations in countering the future challenges. He further said that for the establishment of prosperous smart cities, it is important that governments and their corresponding organizations should forge a consolidated model that can make cities capable of acclimatizing to the changing demographics and could provide all the requisite facilities to the citizens with in the existing segment of resources. He also discussed that implementation of new technological trends and brilliant architectural techniques can add value to the contemporary standards followed in the development of current urban structures and position Gulf region amongst the most advanced mega polis networks of the world.
The session was followed by a panel discussion on 'GCC 2020 Smart Government Challenges and Strategies Implementation Road Map'. The panel was chaired by Dr. Eesa Mohammed Bastak, President of the University of Dubai, Dr. Paulo Goes, Salter Professor and Department Head Management Information Systems, Eller College of Management - University of Arizona; Mr. Siim Sikkut, ICT Policy Adviser, Government Office of Estonia and Information Technology; and Mr. Chan Meng Khoong, Dean/President GePeGi(Global e-Policy & e-Government Institute)

The panel discussed about the productive role that these GCC Smart Government Conferences are playing from past years to attain the 2020 smart government objectives by putting strong emphasis on the adoption of synchronized planning procedures, permeating innovation, evolving supreme governance and management practices and upgrading the present state of technology with the cutting edge technological framework to bring about a revolutionary transformation in the current configuration of smart governance and smart services protocols. The discussion panel highlighted their vision on the challenges emanating due to the rapid pace of globalization and impact it has on the society, organizations and economies.

In context to the above insights furnished by the discussion panel comprising four speakers, each member from the panel also stated their individual perspectives on standardization of infrastructure, maturating challenges of the cities, social stability and globalization and the course of action plans that can be embraced to prepare today�s leaders in encountering the impending series of challenges to achieve the expected results from the corporate and government organizations.

Featuring his enlightened opinions on the integration of smart government and next generation of technologies, Dr. Paulo Goes, Salter Professor and Department Head Management Information Systems, Eller College of Management - University of Arizona asserted that technology surely plays a significant role in establishing the pro-active civic management system and maintaining order in the cities and in this line, Gulf region has already taken outstanding initiatives which apparently position the entire Middle East and its corresponding territories amongst the modernized catalysts implementing the global standardization procedures to consummate 'GCC 2020 Smart Government Vision and Strategies Implementation Roadmap'.

He further said, the need of an hour is that the government should continue its efforts in exploring the possibilities for inculcating the latest pattern of technological practices in developing the ideal smart government and smart cities models and induce the best management mechanisms to augment smart governance to the next gradations of drastic reforms.

Adding his brisk views in reference to the insights highlighted by Dr. Paulo Goes, Dr. Eesa Mohammed Bastak, President of the University of Dubai, said that along with the integration of technologies with the civic modules, it equally gets important for the government and miscellaneous organizations to analyze the impact of globalization on the societies and preserve the prevailing social systems of the Gulf region to infuse stability and robust growth. Mr. Siim Sikkut, ICT Policy Adviser, Government Office of Estonia and Information Technology; and Mr. Chan Meng Khoong, Dean/President GePeGi(Global e-Policy & e-Government Institute), professed similar views and stressed on the reinforcement of progressive strategies that can support CEOs, business leaders and administrative leaders to cope up with adversities of future and create a favorable environment to get excellent results and expand the area of trade operations.

On the conclusive note, before the end of the session, the discussion panel said that with the transformation of cities, it becomes equally critical for the government to enhance the infrastructure and formulate the compliable smart governance policies, strategies and unified portals that can impregnate peerless mechanisms in the management structures and usher best methodologies for the deliverance of smart services to the citizens.

The coffee break and networking session was followed by the speech of H.E. Dr. Saeed Al Dhaheri, Former Director General of Emirates Identity Authority on �GCC 2020 Government Smart Services Simplification Strategies and Frame Work�.

He threw light on the knowledge development for integrating citizens with the technology and the smart technologies that can be developed to deliver smart services to the citizens and permeate the ideology of pro-active governance amongst the organizations associated with diverse professional areas. He also elaborated on the need to make dexterous strategies to counter the future challenges and positioning gulf region at the top notch ladder of global competitiveness. Continuing his words, he said that in this electronic age, the mobile applications and its relevant technologies are used continuously by the business corporates to deliver services and following the similar approach, the government can introduce smart devices to remit smart services to the citizens and give them the privilege of connecting with the government for twelve months in a year.

He further spoke on the next generation of government sService delivery tools through mobile payment gateways that would include full sSociety integration. He elaborated that in this era, when internet has the highest penetration and reach, it is important for the Gulf governments to develop unified portals that can be accessed easily by the citizens and furnishes flexible option to perform the ease of carrying online e-commerce operations.

The next session was followed by a presentation on 'Smart Government and Smart Cities Best Practices by Dr. Fahad Hussain Mushayt, Vice President of Business Development Saudi Telecommunications Company (STC). In his presentation, Dr. Hussain talked about the formulation of best global practices that can be transacted to bring evolutionary change in the application of strategies, contemporary policies and highly refined methodologies to percolate excellence in all the sectors. In connection to his discussion, he cited different examples of various organizations which followed these global practices and advised that by ensuing the same pool of procedures, the other emerging and well established business entities can certainly achieve their goals and set up new benchmarks in amplifying their trade operations. He also appealed the Gulf governments that if they aim to attain the 2020 vision then development of smart ICT standards, creation of superior infrastructure, development of investment friendly policies and communication services should remain their top priorities.

The first day of the conference, elaborately explored various topics like GCC Region's sAchievements and sFuture, creation of prosperous an smart cities, globalization and its impact, society dynamisms, transformative leaderships, and digitalization of sServices and showcased expert case studies on regional and global ICT strides and smartGovernment development.