The “Digital Excellence Award” Committee held recently its 14th meeting in Riyadh. The meeting was a kick off the Committee’s new, fifth consecutive session and aims at identifying the branches for which Saudi Internet websites would compete.
The meeting was chaired by Dr. Mohammed Al-Qasem, advisor to H.E. the Minister of Communications and Information Technology and supervisor general of the Award. It was attended by committee members; namely: Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khurashi, Dr. Suliman Mirdad, Dr. Abdul Rahman Merza, Dr. Mishaal Al-Qadhi and Eng. Khaled Al-Khathlan, the project manager.
During the meeting Dr. Mohammed Al-Qasem disclosed that the Digital Excellence Award plans to expand its mission to include private sector’s companies and establishments working in the different areas of information technology. He noted that the development of Internet websites does not rely only on owning party, but several specialized agencies involved in it.
“In order to encourage companies involved in this field, the committee is studying the addition of new branches not for owners of Internet sites only but for companies providing Internet related services,” Dr. Al-Qasem pointed out.
Meanwhile, the committee reviewed the outcomes of the responses received from those concerned with the inclusion of these new branches and the proposed standards.
Dr. Al-Qasem said that the suggestion for adding new branches to the Award as well as developing arbitration mechanism were discussed during the meeting.
It is worth mentioning that the Digital Excellence Award aims at encouraging, supporting and upgrading the Arabic content on the Internet. The Internet has become a key and vital reference in information industry and an efficient search tool that many cannot do without in particular in today’s world of communication and information technology revolution.
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) has launched this Award after it has noticed the weakness of Arabic content on the Internet compared to the other contents promoting other languages and cultures. By launching this Award, MCIT also aims at supporting all efforts exerted in enhancing the Arabic web content, encouraging individual and/or institutional efforts to develop Arabic web content and providing secured Arabic digital environments which runs in consistency with Saudi Arabia’s traditions, cultures, customs, and norms.
More information about the Award can be obtained from the Award’s link on MCIT website: Award’s