The National Information and Communication Technology eGovernance Committee (ICTGC) held its first meeting following the reformation of the committee, chaired by Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) Chief Executive Mr. Mohammed Ali AlQaed.

The National Information and Communication Technology of eGovernance Committee (ICTGC) has praised the collaborative efforts exerted by ministerial and governmental entities during 2014. The notable achievements of the committee are the Enterprise Architecture Maturity Program and the Strategic IT Planning, which resulted in standardizing technologies and IT strategy development methodology across governmental entities, as well as major reduction of duplicated government processes.

The Website Standards and Guidelines have been updated, aiming to ensure a high degree of consistency and uniformity of government websites. The updated version includes clear methods on new domains such as Web Accessibility in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with disabilities. The updated version also includes Web Optimization Guidelines to improve the performance of government websites, which is directly translated into better user experience, repeated site visits and improved customer satisfaction.

During the 11th meeting of the ICT Governance Committee (ICTGC), the committee has approved an updated version of Technology Standards and Guidelines - aiming to have a unified set of standards that are aligned with the current usage across the government entities and the latest technology trends, while supporting the National eGovernment Strategy 2016. The updated version includes new domains such as Business, Mobile and Social Media, as well as various revamps in the existing domains.

The Enterprise Architecture Governance team at eGovernment Authority participated in the Enterprise Architecture Forum organized by Saudi Arabia’s eGovernment program (Yesser) under the patronage of the Minister of Communications and Information Technology on 27 May 2013 in Riyadh. During the event, Dr. Ali Alsoufi, EA Project Director, presented a paper focusing on Bahrain’s experience in the development and execution of the National Enterprise Architecture Framework (NEAF) across various government entities.

During the 35th meeting of the Supreme Committee of Information and Communication Technology (SCICT), the committee has approved the recommendation of the ICT eGovernance Committee (ICTGC) for integrating Human Resource Management System (HRMS) of CSB with Central Financial System (CFS) of Ministry of Finance preferably as a single instance.

The Supreme Committee for Information and Communication Technology (SCICT) has approved the websites standard and guidelines for all governmental entities, aiming to have a common ground across website development in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Therefore, the ICT eGovernance Committee has instructed to possess an adequate implementation roadmap to be executed across governmental entities by the technical and standards segment.

The ICT eGovernance Committee has instructed a capacity building segment in the eGovernment Authority in order to activate the skills development procedures of the IT strategy plan across various ministries. The plan was launched across governmental entities to invite executive management to participate with their inputs.

One of the ICT eGovernance Committee’s significant missions is to reduce IT Investment and ascertain the redundant IT systems in most governmental entities. In order to accomplish such an objective, the committee collected IT strategic plans of fifteen key ministries, where it advised the identical IT investment. The committee also suggested a centralized solution to minimize IT costs and advised to have a transparent IT investment plan in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Based on this strategic analysis, the ICT eGovernance Committee calculated the estimated figure in the first stage as ‘10% saving in IT plan for 2012 – 2013’. It is considered as a prenominal accomplishment by the committee in its first milestone.

Bahrain National ICT eGovernance Committee, established by Resolution of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Information and Communication Technology, held its first meeting chaired by Mr. Mohammed Ali Al Qaed, Chief Executive officer of the eGovernment Authority.