Bahrain’s online portal (www.bahrain.bh) has won the prestigious 'Arab GoldenChip Award' for its achievement in eGovernment services at a ceremony held in Lebanon on the sidelines of the Mena ICT Week.

Held under the patronage of Lebanese president Michel Suleiman, the Arab Golden Chip Award ceremony, was organised by the Union of Arab ICT Associations.

According to the organisers, the selection process was a long one and conducted through a three-stage process.

The applications are first collected from every Arab country for the award’s six categories (Best Online Application in Government, Best Online Application in Banking, Best Online Application in Commerce, Best Software Product for Export, Best Hardware Product, and Best Arabic Content Project).

The finalists are then selected by a judging panel and then they have to present their subject in front of the judging panel and attendees.

The Kingdom of Bahrain participated in the award through its eGovernment portal under the category of 'Best Online Application in Government,' and was successful against other shortlisted Arab countries’ portals from countries including Syria and the UAE.

The award was presented to Isa Abdulrahman, Bahrain eGovernment Authority’s director of marketing and awareness.

The award comes in line with the clear strategy set by Bahrain’s eGovernment’s program which contains 167 governmental services, in addition to 67 actual services already available on the eGovernment’s portal for four categories (individuals, businesses, government, and visitors) in Arabic and English.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Atiyat Allah Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s minister of cabinet affairs, dedicated the success to Sheikh Mohammad bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, deputy prime minister and chairman of the Supreme ICT Committee and thanked him for the continuing support of Bahrain’s eGovernment program.
 
In addition, Sheikh Ahmed said that the Kingdom's participation in all regional and international ICT awards was an important element in the execution of Bahrain’s national eGovernment strategy.

This helped to ensure Bahrain’s leading edge excellence in the field of eGovernment as compared to other nations, he pointed out.

He also congratulated Bahrain’s ministries and government agencies and said they were "partners in this success since the services they provide through the eGovernment online portal played a considerable role in fetching the award."

Mohammad Ali Al-Qaed, eGovernment Authority’s chief executive officer said the eGovernment’s online portal currently provides 67 online governmental services.

He pointed out that there had been a remarkable increase in the number of visitors to the portal mainly due to its full range of governmental services and payment methods, including credit cards and ATM debit cards.

He thanked government ministries and agencies for their efforts in making these services possible through the portal and turning it into a one-stop shop for the wider public to conduct all its government services.

Al-Qaed also highlighted the benefits of the eGovernment’s portal which include the numerous ways to reach any online service, ability to search for any online service in Arabic and English, classification of online services into four categories (individuals, businesses, government, and visitors) complete a huge database of useful information under each category and compilation of all information related to a online services in one page (such as name of service, information about it, proper use of service before actually doing so).

The portal also provides visitors with the ability to print out the information relevant to their desired service(s) and control the font along with bilingual instructions on converting it into PDF format, in addition to videos that allow visitors to live the experience of using that particular service and a simplified user interface for easy browsing.-TradeArabia News Service