The Bahrain eGovernment Authority (eGA) has outlined its new strategy for the (2012-2016) period with focus on delivering high-quality services and improving public communication with government entities through social networks.

Unveiling the strategy, His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Information and Communication Technology (SCICT) said  90 new projects will be implemented during the four-year period.

Also 40 new eServices and 10 smart phones apps will be launched every year during the period, revealed Shaikh Mohammed while speaking at the recent official opening of Bahrain International eGovernment Forum 2012.

On the new strategy, eGA chief executive officer Mohammad Ali Al Qaed said, “Building on the solid foundations of the previous period (2007-2010), the new eGovernment strategy aspires to achieve next generation government excellence by delivering high-quality services effectively, besides encouraging innovation, advocating proactive public engagement, nurturing entrepreneurship and collaborating with all stakeholders.”

According to him, the authority had assigned the international consulting company Booz & Co to develop the new eGovernment strategy.

Al Qaed pointed out that in order to achieve the objectives of eGA and realize its required benefits, a number of key objectives have been outlined to respond to the needs and requirements of stakeholders (individuals, governments and businesses).

These objectives aims to improve community engagement and participation; protect information and user rights; reinforce partnerships with the private sector; increase ICT readiness; enhance eGovernment channels and user experience; increase service-uptake; as well as offer comprehensive and effectively-managed quality service offering, said the eGA chief.

In a step forward  to achieve this vision and accomplish the outlined key strategic objectives, Al Qaed highlighted that 90 projects will be implemented throughout the four coming years through devising a comprehensive action framework based on a three-dimension approach 'ERU'(Environment, Readiness and Usage).

The environment dimension addresses many country-wide factors like ICT and regulatory environments; government collaboration and social engagement.

Also, the readiness dimension addresses government capabilities through its people, processes, governance and technology to deliver an infrastructure that is capable of sustaining more effectiveness; and finally the usage dimension addresses customer-focused eServices and user interaction with government through multi-channels.

Al Qaed said that a number of key performance indicators (KPIs) have been identified to achieve each objective and this proves the authority’s commitment in co-operation with other entities involved in the implementation of the eGovernment strategy to ensure full achievement of the required vision. 

In order to achieve the first objective ‘Increased Society Participation and Engagement’, eGA will strive to increase public awareness on the eGovernment program to 90 per cent, and 50 per cent of government entities to interact with constituents on a weekly basis through social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Blog).

Furthermore, to achieve the other two objectives ‘Increase Partnerships and Private Sector ICT Readiness and Higher Performing, Collaborative, Integrated and Efficient Government’, two government-wide systems will be implemented, said the eGA chief.

Moreover, utilizing the authority’s global partnerships, two new ICT initiatives will be triggered annually from international partnerships and three eGovernment-related toolkits will be developed as well.

According to him, eGA will also annually train 150 government employees on eGovernment specialized disciplines and further train 5,000 nationals on IT and eGovernment foundational topics with an aim to improve the nation-wide eLiteracy level and build employees’ capacity in government and IT skills.

In a bid to achieve the objective of protecting information security and user rights, information and privacy protection policies will be implemented at 10 government entities along with the National Authentication Framework (eKey).

With regard to delivering high-quality services effectively, eGA will create consolidated services fact-book in place, all government service information to be available online and 40 eServices will be deployed annually.

'In an attempt to enhance eGovernment channels and user-experience with an increased service-uptake, eGA will annually develop 10 new mobile applications, upgrade and integrate three comprehensive eGovernment channels (the portal, mobile gate, national contact center, eKiosks), in addition to increasing usage by 10 per cent annually to attain an uptake of 100 per cent for all two-way transaction services, launch 20 additional services that are annually delivered through the national contact center and maintain customer satisfaction index levels over 80 per cent,' said Al Qaed.

Furthermore, three eGovernment related innovative projects will be established - along with five applications to be developed, based on open data with an aim of supporting innovation and entrepreneurship, he stated.

Al Qaed pointed out that all services will be consistently defined, named and managed through an online service fact-book.

By 2014, three eGovernment channels will be comprehensively upgraded to maintain efficient and value-added usage based on best practices.

He said over the next four years, eGA will start enabling entities to gradually take on the responsibility of developing more eServices.

While crafting the strategy, eGA was keen on researching and utilizing international eGovernment trends through benchmarking best practices in 18 countries based on dimensions and framework of eGovernment with the latest ICT trends, he added.-TradeArabia News Service