Bahraini deputy PM urges new vision for youth creativity enhancement

The Arab eContent Awards 2013 and Bahrain eContent Awards 2013 were presented by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Information and Communications Technology (SCICT). The future for Bahrain’s youth is heavily dependent on technology as information and technology will shape the future of the emerging generation. “Everything requires a new all-embracing vision to make youth true architects of our societies,” the deputy prime minister said. Shaikh Mohammed added that Bahrain embraced the idea of enhancing e-Content in an effort to stay abreast with the latest developments and create a knowledge-driven economy. Promotion of creativity and engaging Bahraini youth in scientific advancements -- including developing and designing e-Content and putting a significant imprint of national identity on the international technology map needs a stimulating environment acting as a catalyst, he added. His Highness urged the localisation of content and pooling of information to benefit local communities. Thereafter he honoured the winners. The e-Government and open data awards were won by Saudi Arabia-based Saudi e-Gov (Yesser) – Saudi Arabia, Zakat House – Kuwait and Hukoomi (Qatar eGovernment) – Qatar . Altibbi.com – Jordan, Dr. Bridge – Egypt and Beatona website - Kuwait official electronic environmental information portal won the honours in e-health and environment. PresentationTube of Egypt and Baraem (Al Jazeera Children's Channel) of Qatar won the awards for elearning and science. Lamsa of Saudi Arabia, Cinemoz of Lebanon and Jeem TV (Al Jazeera Children's Channel) of Qatar won the e-entertainment and games awards. Community Portal (Reefnet) of Syria, Mahdia Online from Tunisia and Egyptian archives of folk-life and folk traditions from Egypt took away the e-culture and tourism awards. The e-media and journalism awards went to Observatory of Parliament Members from Tunisia, Masrawy.com from Egypt and a local entity StartupBahrain. In e-Business and commerce BeezTouch Suite of Tunisia, Filoosy of Bahrain and Sheeel.com of Kuwait, took away the awards. In e-inclusion and empowerment, TAM of Saudi Arabia, All4Charity of Tunisia and SKeyes of Lebanon won the awards. The winners by category are the ministry of social development portal and the ministry of finance official website in e-government and open data. The e-health and environment content awards were won by the ministry of health, Artificial Reefs and Medical Informatics System (Stamina). PaperV Application and Muharraq Club website walked away with the honours in e-entertainment and games. The e-culture and tourism awards were won by Bahrain International Airport website and Spring of Culture website. In e-media and journalism Startup Bahrain, and newspaper websites of Akhbar Al Khaleej and Alayam were the winners. In the e-business and commerce, the winners were Filoosy website, Gulf Air and CIBAFI - CMS and web application. Mums of Bahrain won the e-inclusion and empowerment award. The e-banking awards were picked by the websites of BMI Bank Corporate and eBanking, Bahrain Islamic Bank (Corporate) and Kuwait Finance House. Batelco Innovation Center (Ideas) won the e-learning and science award. The Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Information and Communication Technology honoured Hisham Fawzi Shehabi for being the only Bahraini team in the world summit youth award (WSYA) 2013. The product is the first online platform for a diabetes project - Diabetes.bh. It is co-developed by Tariq Al Olaimy, Imad Naeemi and Saleh Al Derazi. The event was held under the patronage of H.H. Shaikh Mohammed. It was organized by the Bahrain Internet Society (BIS), in cooperation with the eGovernment Authority (eGA) and the World Summit Award (WSA). Minister for Transport Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed, delivering the welcome address for innovators in science and technology. “We recognize the significance and close correlation between both awards with a view to enrich the Arab eContent as a strategic value for our present and future. Audience also recognize that the Arab eContent Award is the result of the concerted efforts primarily motivated by Bahrain’s active part in the World Summit Award (WSA) in 2003,” he added. The minister said that the Arabic language ranked sixth in the world in terms of propagation, and almost 360 million Arabic users are connected via the internet. However, according to Arab Information and Communications Technologies Organization (AICTO), the volume of the Arab eContent on the net is only 3 per cent.