Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 6 July, 2008 – One of Saudi Arabia’s leading ICT figures arrived in Malaysia last month to lead discussions as to how the Kingdom can best improve upon the on-going accomplishments of Yesser e-government program. Engineer Ali Al-Soma, Advisor to the Minister of ICT and Director General of the Saudi e-government program met with representatives from Malaysia’s ICT industry as well as worldwide ICT executives during the 16th World Congress for Information Technology held in Kuala Lumpur to foster new means of cooperation as the Kingdom looks to become the first country in the GCC to develop a complete e-government platform.
As a keynote speaker for the panel discussion on Doing Business in Asia, Eng. Ali Al-Soma said that Saudi Arabia’s streamlined rules and regulations have attracted more foreign investments but the Kingdom is still working on many initiatives to fully develop its human capital.
“The local ICT industry now contributes more than five percent to the Kingdom’s GDP, but our goal is to create an economy based on knowledge and learning. That’s the basis for the Yesser project, and we’re keen to explore ways of working with countries such as Malaysia who were the first to pioneer and pilot e-government initiatives,” said Al-Soma.
Launched in 1997, Malaysia’s Electronic Government initiative was launched to lead the country into the Information Age. With the aim of improving how the government operates internally, as well as how it delivers services to the people of Malaysia. Malaysia’s huge e-government initiative began in 1997 with the launch of the Multimedia Super Corridor’s E-Government Flagship Application. Since then, the Malaysian Government has made large strides in areas such as electronic procurement, project monitoring, and human resource management.
“Malaysia was one of, if not, the first to understand the concept of e-government, and what it can do for both individuals and businesses. We’ve opened our arms to Engineer Ali Al-Soma and his team as they look to develop solutions that fit into Saudi society,” said WCIT 2008 Chairman and MDeC CEO Badlisham Ghazali. “There’s no doubt that we can learn a good deal from one another and we’re looking forward to assisting the Kingdom’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technology in any and every way possible.”
The Yesser project is considered to be the largest and most ambitious such e-government program in the GCC. Al-Soma and his team have been tasked by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology with developing a system that can aid in raising the productivity and efficiency of the public sector, provide better and more easy-to-use services for individual and business customers, and provide the public and businesses with highly accurate information in a timely fashion.
“We’re very keen to understand how Malaysians have taken to their own government’s solutions, and learn how we can further enhance the ongoing implementation of Yesser project(s). So far, WCIT 2008 has been particularly useful for us and we’re thankful to our hosts for their hospitality and eagerness to answer all of our questions,” added Al-Soma.
The bi-annual event, held in Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur, WCIT 2008 drew IT experts from across the globe to discuss ways and means to develop emerging markets through the effective use of ICT solutions. As a leader in technology development, Malaysia was one of the first countries globally to roll out e-government for its citizens and businesses to benefit from.
Photo Caption: Badlisham Ghazali, CEO of MDeC
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