Sheikh Mohammed bin Mubarak, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the of Supreme Committee for Information and Communication Technology (SCICT), will present the eGovernment Excellence Awards at the opening ceremony of the Bahrain International eGovernment Forum 2009 on May 25, said Mohammed Ali Al Qaed, CEO of the eGovernment Authority (eGA), Bahrain in a statement on Saturday. The awards will build upon the tremendous success of last year's competition, also held under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Mubarak, which resulted in all GCC member states adopting the award themselves at local levels. Bahrain has proposed the organization of these national competitions as a preliminary round in the first half of the year to qualify for the GCC-wide awards, to be held at a GCC summit. Bahrain had distributed copies of the competition's standards which outline the implementation mechanisms and judging panel selection to all GCC countries, as well as coordinating and providing support to fellow GCC nations through several meetings and communications over the past 10 months. “The eGovernment Excellence Awards aims to spread awareness about the important role eGovernment plays in Bahrain,” Al Qaed said, “as well as encouraging ministries and citizens alike to make use of the various eServices available to them. I also encourage the private sector to offer more pioneering technological initiatives which contribute towards making life easier and simpler.” The eGovernment Excellence Awards is divided into 3 main award groups and 9 categories as follows: The Government Awards, which includes 5 categories (Best eContent Award, Best eService Award, Best eMature Award, Best eGovernment Project Award, Best eEconomy Award; the Business Awards, which includes 2 awards (Best ICT Solution Provider Award and Best eEconomy Award), and finally the Citizens Awards, which also includes 2 categories (Best eCitizen Award and Best eConcept Award). Further information about the competition may be seen at the official website of the eGovernment Excellence Awards, (www.egovawards.bh). __
