H.E. Eng. Mohamed Jamil Mulla, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology and Engr. Yousif Bin Ibrahim Al-Bassam, chairman of the board of directors of the Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) sign an agreement between the Ministry and SIDF. The agreement which was signed at King Abdul Aziz Telecommunications Complex in Riyadh Tuesday 9-3-2010, aims at boosting cooperation between the two parties for having SIDF to shift to the adoption of e-transactions.
In press statements following the signature of this agreement, Eng. Mulla explained that this agreement comes within SIDF’s endeavor to shift to the adoption of e-government transactions. He added that the agreement also comes in response to relevant Royal decrees and orders.
The Minister pointed out that the agreement stipulates that e-government Program (YESSER) shall render consultative services for developing and enabling e-transactions strategy, programs and projects resulting from it, identifying best practices and methods for upgrading necessary infrastructure, identifying and documenting SIDF services and re-engineering these services to offer them electronically within a specific set timetable and according to priorities.
For his part, Engr. Yousif Bin Ibrahim Al-Bassam, chairman of the board of directors of the Saudi Industrial Development Fund explained that the sigimg of this agreement comes within the government’s plan for the implementation of e-government services to benefit from the rapid technological developments taking place in ICT services. He added that cooperation with YESSER will enable SIDF to set up and execute its plans and works mechanisms electronically in term of communicating with the Fund’s clients, the activation of linking SIDF with relevant government departments through linking and integration channels and Government Secure Network (GSN), an affiliate to MCIT. He noted that this cooperation will materialize in the speedy and efficiency of the execution of services offered by SIDF to those who get loans, industrial sector and relevant governments in general.
Within this agreement, also, YESSER will provide SIDF with an advisory team to work on a comprehensive study of some e-services offered by SIDF. This should include the study and evaluation of the quality of the services offered by SIDF and to what extend ICT is utilized for offering these services.
The advisory team would work with SIDF to identify and document the Fund’s vision and requirements for the next phase in term of upgrading and improving services in addition to upgrading and improving necessary infrastructure and regulations and the assessment of gap between present and proposed future situations. The agreement, moreover, stipulates that YESSER shall work with SIDF team to prepare its strategy for e-services within the framework of the National e-government Strategy. This work shall cover projects, programs and plans necessary for the implementation of this strategy according to the priorities to be set in coordination with concerned parties at SIDF.