BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:1.0
BEGIN: VEVENT
LOCATION;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:
DESCRIPTION;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:Charles Sha’ban  Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organizations  (TAGOrg)      UN Workshop on E-Participation and E-Government    Agenda:  ?? Statistics  ?? Issues & Challenges  ?? Case study: Jordanian SMEs  ?? Implemented Applications  ?? Success criteria     Statistics from the UN Global E-Government readiness report 2005  ?? None of the Arab Countries either in Western Asia or North Africa reached 0.6  ?? Only two above 0.5: UAE (0.5718) & Bahrain (0.5282)  ?? Still some good efforts in some countries  ?? Egypt: “The Government now delivers”  ?? Qatar: “Government services made easier”  ?? Although Africa average was 0.2642 but the African Arab Countries average is: 0.2978     E-Government Readiness index  Country                Index  ?? UAE               0.5718  ?? Bahrain          0.5282  ?? Qatar             0.4895  ?? Jordan            0.4639  ?? Lebanon                 0.4560  ?? Kuwait           0.4431  ?? Saudi Arabia  0.4105  ?? Oman            0.3405  ?? Iraq               0.3334  ?? Syria              0.2871  ?? Yemen           0.2125     Average 0.4124     E-Government Readiness index (2)  Country              Index  ?? Egypt             0.3793  ?? Tunisia           0.3310  ?? Algeria           0.3242  ?? Morocco          0.2774  ?? Djibouti          0.2381  ?? Sudan            0.2370     Average 0.2978     Other indexes  ?? Web measure: UAE (0.6115)  ?? No Arab country received good ranking for online payments (although there is already some good solutions: E-dirham in the UAE &  E-payment gateway in Jordan)  ?? Gender indicators: Women’s participation is low, e.g. in Jordan, the literacy rate for women is 84.7%, they are only 6% of the  Internet users and less than 0.5% of the technical workers     Issues & Challenges  ?? Digital Divide (within the country itself most of the times)  ?? Language Barrier (Arabic contents and Arabic Domain Names)  ?? Literacy rates  ?? Hardware and software prices  ?? Limited connectivity  ?? Awareness  ?? Telecommunications infrastructure  Issues & Challenges for implementing E-Government  ?? National vision and planning  – Still need more commitment, collaboration and awareness  ?? National culture and internet penetration  – Resistance to change and Internet usage  ?? National security challenges  – Trust in online transactions in general  – Some governmental procedures needs long steps, how will it be online?     Case study: Jordanian SMEs  Internet Usage in SME – Jordan        Credit Cards - Jordan  ?? Security of online transactions and payment issues:   21.9%   do not trust the electronic environment  27.1%   Electronic signature is not important  72.4%   not aware of Jordanian  Electronic Transactions Law     IT training – Jordan           Implemented Applications     Implemented Applications 1  ?? UAE  – Human Resources Management System (HRMS):  Provides a tool for planning and managing employee related activities  – Financial Management Information System:  Comprehensive financial systems for the Federal government agencies  – E-Stamps: The e-Dirham payment tool devised by the Ministry  of Finance Industry in order to facilitate collection of revenues and  provide secure payment method.  – E-Tender: Electronic tendering system used by the government  – Other specialized systems related to some Ministries and authorities     Implemented Applications 2  ?? Bahrain  – Financial and Human resources systems in 30 ministries and governmental department  ?? Jordan  – Financial, purchasing and inventory systems in different governmental agencies  – E-Payments in the telecommunications sector  – E-Tendering  – Wideband network in 18 Ministries (will be the infrastructure of the e-Government services)     Implemented Applications 3  ?? Lebanon  – Document Management and Archiving System  – Business Automation  – E-Procurement (with Italian Government assistance)  ?? Kuwait  – Financial and HR systems (in government educational universities too)     Implemented Applications 4  ?? Egypt  – ERP in 6 ministries  – Archiving systems in 6 ministries  – Workflow in more than 28 governmental agencies  ?? Oman (still in progress)  – Disaster Recovery system  – E-Tendering  – E-payment Gateway  – Technology park  – CRM (Oman Municipality)     Measures of Success  ?? Leadership support and advocacy for E-Government  ?? Clear goals and specific performance targets  ?? Willingness and ability to change  ?? Knowledge sharing  ?? Starting small and growing quickly  ?? Developing acceptable privacy and security safeguards     References  ?? UN Global E-Government Readiness Report 2005  ?? Arab Countries e-Government Programs report by SavvyTek 2006  ?? Arab Advisors Group reports  ?? Forums and Seminars we participated in, related to the topic  ?? Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Information Technologies International (TAGITI) studies        Thank you  Charles Sha’ban  Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAGOrg)  cshaban@tagi.com
SUMMARY;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:E-Government readiness in the
DTSTART:20060727T000000
DTEND:
PRIORITY:3
End:VEVENT
End:VCALENDAR