Technology & IT | Wednesday 29 April, 2015 4:33 pm |

Saudi Arabia is expected to exceed USD 37 billion in ICT spending in 2015, as originally reported in a recent IDC report. This investment, by far the highest ever by any country in the Middle East and North Africa region, is dominated by the government’s spending towards achieving complete e-transformation and adoption of smart technologies.
 
Smart technology and services integration have gained rapid momentum within the region. This was highlighted by the launch of the new GCC e-Government Portal by the GCC e-Government Ministerial Committee.
 
Saudi Arabia is embracing a new phase of Smart-Government by investing heavily in ICT infrastructure, cloud and datacenters, web and mobile applications, mobility, analytics, cyber security and social networking.
 


In line with the Saudi Arabian government’s vision, French information group Naseba, supported  by the Ministry of ICT’s Yesser e-Government program, is hosting the 6th Annual Kingdom e-Government Summit on the 10th and 11th May 2015 at the Burj Rafal Hotel Kempinski in Riyadh.
 
The summit will gather over 120 CIOs, CTOS and IT professionals to discuss the future of government technology and innovation. The Director General of the Yesser e-Government Program, Eng. Ali AlSoma will deliver the opening speech titled ‘Interconnecting GCC nations through the GCC e-Government portal’.
 


Talking about the summit, Eng. Ali AlSoma noted “Much to the benefit of citizens and businesses, leveraging technology to offer smart electronic and mobile services has almost become a mandate in the GCC region. The timing of the e-Government Summit is advantageous as it comes just a few weeks after the launch of the new GCC e-Government portal. The event has consistently served as a significant platform to communicate our national plans and vision, and also offers a high level of knowledge sharing and networking opportunities to participating government officials”.
 


Managing Director of Naseba, Nicholas Watson added, “Yesser’s continual support towards the summit demonstrates their pledge in assisting Saudi government entities achieve smart e-transformation. In addition to the knowledge sharing and networking opportunities, the summit is focused on helping local stakeholders access the latest technologies and benchmark against international best practices.”
 
Leading IT solution providers taking part in the summit and looking to further the Kingdoms e-initiatives include Oracle, SAP, Everteam, FutureTech, Horizon IT, SMCE, Axios Systems, Kodak Alaris, Wacom, Altair, CORCOM, GAVS, Infrability, LINK Development, Massilatech, Nortal, Omnix, Opentext, Shift Technologies, Pagero, and Tasheel.