Bahrain is ranked in the first position for the Arab Gulf countries.. the third for Asia.. and the thirteenth at the world level for e-government

In a press conference held in January , HE Shaikh Ahmed bin Atteyatallah Al Khalifa, Minister of Cabinet Affairs, announced the results of the report of the United Nations e-Government Readiness 2010 report, where the Kingdom of Bahrain has made a new achievement in this area, and occupied a new leading position at the world level. The Kingdom is now ranked the thirteenth (13) at the world level and it was ranked forty-second (42) during 2008, advancing the Kingdom twenty-nine (29) positions and surpassing many European and Asian countries in this area.

The report, which is issued every two years by the United Nations, revealed the Kingdom of Bahrain leading position in the first place at the GCC and Middle East level after it was already in the second place, ahead of all the Gulf states and Arab countries. Bahrain has also achieved the third place (3) in Asia After occupying the eighth (8) two years ago, noting that one of the strategic objectives of the Bahrain eGovernment was to reach the fifth (5) position in Asia, but Bahrain exceeded this position and deservedly occupied the third place, outperforming the very technically advanced Asian countries such as Japan, Malaysia and others.

The report identified the use of the eGovernment as a tool which increases the accessibility of information and provision of eGovernment services to the public. The report listed 192 countries in the world at the level of readiness of their governments, where Bahrain achieved universal achievement and occupied the top ranking at the level of Arab countries, the third place at the level of the Asian countries and the thirteenth place worldwide.

In this regard, His Excellency Shaikh Ahmed bin Atteyatallah expressed his pride on Bahrain's achievement, stating: "The eGovernment Authority was formed to lead the egovernance transition at the right time and place, as the Authority oversees the move towards egovernance in accordance with the international standards. It provides support to ministries on the electronic transformation, and today we are reaping the benefit of those combined efforts of the eGovernment Authority, ministries and institutions"

Noting that Bahrain was able through this report to excel above several advanced countries, such as Europe and Asia .

Shaikh Ahmed bin Attayatallah also pointed to the role of the Supreme Committee for Information Technology and Communications, chaired by HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister, and the support provided to the eGovernment program, as well as the role of their Highnesses and Excellencies the Ministers members of the Supreme Committee for Information Technology and Communications, for their valuable experience and guidance. He added:” I would also like to concentrate on the efforts of all loyal officials of Bahrain ministries and governmental entities, especially the staff in the eGovernment Authority, in implementing the eGovernment project.

The report relies on three main factors to measure the development and progress of countries:

•  Web index (eGovernment national portal Bahrain.bh, Ministry of Finance, Ministry Of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Social Development and Ministry of Labor.

•  The index of infrastructure for communications based on the data and statistics by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA).

•  The index of human capital according to the report of UNESCO (Central Informatics Organization) in addition to the e-participation index.

Mr. Mohammed Ali Al Qaed, the Chief Executive Officer of the eGovernment Authority expressed his pride on achieving these results, stated "In the previous report of the United Nations in 2008, Bahrain was the second at the Arab level and the forty-second worldwide and accordingly we met with the United Nations at its headquarters in New York and formed a Bahraini working group from relevant ministries to work on improving the rank of the Kingdom of Bahrain, review and evaluate all mechanisms set by the United Nations, which negatively impacted on the classification and ranking of several countries, compared to the previous report in 2008, however, in the latest report the Kingdom of Bahrain has made unprecedented achievements.

In conclusion, Mr. Al Qaed praised the ministries and governmental entities in the Kingdom of Bahrain and stated: "The IT professionals in the different ministries and governmental entities is an added value to be considered for Bahrain”.

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