MCIT achievements during the past three years
For executing its tasks, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) ocuses on plans, policies, programs, projects and initiatives that assist in developing the communications and information technology ( C&IT) sector, stimulating the growth and spreading the use of this sector at all life aspects. This aims at the realization of sustainable development, support the process of transformation to information society, increase the efficiency, raise productivity at both public and private sectors, improve the level of government services offered to citizens and expatriates and business sector and consequently boost the economic growth, increase GDP, raise awareness at the government sector in particular and in the society in general about the importance of information technology and its role in development and advancement and participation in relevant local and international functions.
Following is a summary of the most important achievements realized by MCIT during the past three years:
(1)Approval of the National Communications and Information Technology Plan (NCITP) by the Council of Ministers. NCITP and its related tasks were assigned to MCIT. The draft Plan was then reviewed and the subjects related to communications were added to it before it was forwarded to the King and then sent to all ministries to seek their opinions, studied by the Experts Commission and making changes according to the remarks filed by the Commission. Several projects of the NCITP are currently being executed by different government departments.
(2)Preparation of “Communications and Information Technology Policy Statement”, in both Arabic and English languages. By preparing this document, the Ministry aims at shedding light on the policies that it plans to adopt in the forthcoming years for developing the C&IT sector in the Kingdom. The document was published in a booklet and placed on the Ministry Internet website.
(3)MCIT, in cooperation with the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), has completed the requirements for the preparation of the draft e-transactions law. The law was ratified and its by-law was issued. The law aims at regulating electronic transactions and signatures.
(4)MCIT, in cooperation with CITC, has completed the requirements for the preparation of the draft IT criminal law. The law was approved by the Saudi Cabinet and the Ministry issued its by-law. The law aims at eliminating electronic crimes by identifying these crimes and punishments pertain to them. It endeavors to maintain a balance between the use of information technology and the protection of users. It also aims at protecting the public interest, morals, general ethics and the national economy.
(5)Preparation of controls for the application of e-government transactions at government departments. The controls were approved by the Saudi Cabinet and MCIT is following-up their implementation. These controls are important as they are necessary for the application of e-government transactions. They include regulatory aspects of government data and information, procedures for government services, technical aspects for e-government transactions like the national portal for e-government transactions and the websites of government departments.
(6)A royal decree was issued according to a suggestion from the Ministry for setting up a higher e-government transactions committee in each government department to coordinate with the MCIT.
(7)Preparation of “Information Security Policy Statement for Government Department”. The document includes a directory that suits the requirements of each government department. The Policy statement aims at establishing the general frames for the preparation of security information policies that match international standards and enable government departments to maintain a level of information security in a way that preserves secrecy, availability and integration of information sources.
(8)Preparation of the draft “Regulation for the use of computers, information networks and Internet in government departments.” The regulation was forwarded to the concerned agency and is currently under study by an ad hoc committee at the Experts Commission.
(9)Initiating the e-government program “Yesser.” MCIT, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and CITC, supervise the program which aims at enabling and encouraging government departments to apply e-government transactions. The executive plan for e-government program in the Kingdom was prepared and a new website, in both Arabic and English languages, has been developed for the program.
(10)Listing the most prominent government services offered to individuals, business and government sectors in addition to obtaining the basic information for more than 150 integrated services. Information includes the requirements of obtaining the services and the agencies providing these services.
(11)Developing a comprehensive e-service Enablement Framework. The framework is accompanied with guiding manuals, methodologies and models that assist different government departments to execute their projects with high profession.
(12)Starting the implementation of Government Service Bus (GSB) which includes middle wares of integrated infrastructure of sets and programs hosted at the e-government center. GSB aims at the activation of the exchange of shared government data between authorized parties for the use of this data to provide e-government services in an accurate, fast and secure form.
(13)Developing the Saudi Government Electronic Portal (www.saudi.gov.sa), which is a unified website aims at facilitating citizens and expatriates dealings with government sectors and increasing the level of transparency. The portal includes a number of electronic directories; namely: government departments’ directory, in Arabic and English languages, including branches and different regions. The directory includes contact details and Internet sites of more than 1600 government departments. The portal also includes a directory of laws, decisions and regulations where more than 210 laws, decisions and regulations in Arabic language and more than 40 laws, decisions and regulations in English language are available. Government services directory includes information about the different government services, the party offering such a service, its URL and service requirements. The services were arranged according to the type of service (individuals, business sector) and also arranged as per their nature to make search easy. More than 150 services are available on the portal.
(14)Setting up Government Shared Network (GSN) which aims at linking government departments with e-government Data Center at the e-government program “Yesser” and have the program be as a linking point between the different government departments GSN also aims at unifying and minimizing the costs of the mechanism for linking-up government departments. As a first phase, 14 government agencies were linked with GSN.
(15)Building the Government Framework for Interoperability (YEFI), which aim at establishing unified technical specifications for the shared government data and the key technologies used in government sectors. The goal is to facilitate the integrity, exchange of data and addressing the different technologies at government departments.
(16)Unification of the specifications of Government Resources Planning (GRP) systems. These are the shared or common systems or automatic applications between the different sectors of government departments. The aim here is to reduce the exhaustion of resources and efforts in developing the applications of GRP, increasing the chances of success of these projects and assisting government departments in selecting, developing or installing resources planning systems.
(17)Developing the general organizational framework of partnership between the public and private sectors for the execution of IT projects including developing an easy to use directory and a comprehensive detailed directory.
(18)Participating in raising awareness at the government sector. In this context, the best practices and experiments as well as directories were released for spreading the best practices, concepts and measures for the support of the application of e-transactions at government departments. More than 15 documents in both Arabic and English languages were issued in addition to the convention of more than 13 general workshops and more than 35 special workshops. Lectures for government departments were held. Brochures, booklets and films were released as well. Among the books been released, for instance, “The Concept of e-transactions,” and “Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).” MCIT and SESCO organized a training course of the international program for executive managers. 22 general managers from different government departments took part in this course.
(19)MCIT took part in more than 20 functions including festivals, conferences and forums. The objective is to raise awareness among citizens and expatriates in the field of communications and information technology and demonstrate the efforts being exerted in the application of e-government program in the Kingdom as well as shedding light on future thrusts and priorities.
(20)Organization of the national conference on e-government with an aim of enhancing communication between participating decision-makers from both the public and private sectors in order to reach a common base that would develop the concepts of e-government and create better relation with key partners of e-government applications. 15 key sessions, including two seminars, were held at the conference. 17 local government experiments, 11 experiments from the private sector and 5 international ones were presented at the conference. 51 speakers including 15 from outside the Kingdom spoke at the conference. 10 workshops in which more than 400 male and 50 female participants were involved in these functions. An exhibition was held on the sidelines of the conference where 33 government departments and 20 private sector’s agency took part.
(21)Starting the establishment of the National Center for Digital Certification (NCDC), which provides integrated system for management of the public key infrastructure (PKI) used in information security and confidentiality. PKI general policies and criteria, certificates and users’ controls were developed. The digital certificates policy was issued. The national policies and procedures that regulate the provision of service like the conditions of licensing service providers, mechanism for supervising certification and registration centers, ways for follow-up as well as the mechanism for managing the NCDC were also developed.
(22)Representing the Kingdom at the regional and international levels in functions that were concerned with the development of C&IT sector. This was achieved through MCIT participation in the following events:
- Chairmanship of the Arab working team tasked with formulating the Arab Communication and Information Technology Strategy.
- Chairmanship of the ministerial committee and the executive committee of posts, communications and information technology at the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.
- Membership of the Council and executive bureau of Arab Communications and Information Technology ministers and deputy chairman of the Council’s executive bureau for two years (2007-2008).
- Chairmanship of the board of directors of Arab Satellite Communication Organization (ARABSAT).
- Membership of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
- Participated in the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) which took place in Tunis in 2005.
- Participated in the World Telecommunication Development Conference (Doha, 2006).
- Participated in radio sector events and its international conferences.
- Participated in several other international conferences, forums, exhibitions and workshops concerned with C&IT sector.
- The Kingdom follow-up the General Assemblies of some international satellite communication international organizations, like Intelsat and Inmarsat, which have transformed from an international cooperative into private companies. The objective is to preserve the Kingdom’s interests at these organizations.
- Participates in bilateral committees for economic cooperation held between the Kingdom and friendly and sisterly countries and have the C&IT sector benefit from these bilateral relations.
(23)Participated in the working team tasked to study the recommendation of assigning higher administrative posts for IT at government departments and have these posts directly linked to the top executive at the department.
(24)Participated in the working team tasked to study appropriate practices for the operation and maintenance of computers and increasing the level of information security at government departments.
(25)Organization of “Digital Excellence Award” for three consecutive year with an aim of encouraging the use, enriching the spread of the Arabic web content, encouraging the public and private sectors as well as individuals to develop their websites and contributing in increasing the availability of local digital web contents. More than 450 websites have taken part in the Award. The sites were evaluated by special arbitrators committee formed from experts from different agencies. Winners were honored.
(26)Coordination with the Deputy Ministry of Contractors Classification at the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs (MOMRA) for establishing an appropriate classification for C&IT companies. MCIT has prepared a final, integrated report and forwarded to MOMRA to include among the classifications conducted by the Ministry.