Bahrain calls for global IT links
By SOMAN BABY
Gulf Daily News
Vol XXVIII NO. 2 Tuesday 22 March 2005
MANAMA
BAHRAIN yesterday urged policy-makers thoughout Asia to forge closer
links with the global information technology industry. The call
came from Transportation Minister Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa,
at the opening of the third Asia IT Ministers’ Summit.
Delegations from more than 35 countries, including 20 ministers, are
attending the two-day event at the Bahrain International Exhibition
Centre. The landmark summit is a continuation of the dialogue between
Asian ministers on how to develop the IT infrastructure in their
respective countries and how to benefit from the latest developments
of the global information and communication technology.
The dialogue started at the first summit, which was held in 2003 in
Seoul, Korea and continued in January, 2004 in Hyderabad, India.
“At the last summit in Hyderabad, Bahrain was awarded the privilege
to hold the third summit and this is an excellent opportunity for
the Arab world to align their own IT development strategies with
the fast-growing Asian economies, which share many similarities in
economic development and infrastructure,” said Shaikh Ali.
The Bahrain summit will review the progress made since Hyderabad and
evaluate new IT solutions and technologies.
“The summit is of strategic importance not only for the participating
countries but also for the continued prosperity of humankind,” said
Shaikh Ali.
“Therefore, the global IT industry has also been invited to take
a serious look at this event, because the interaction between
the policy-makers from Asia and the top leaders from the global IT
industry will provide first-hand information on future market trends
and industry requirements.”
Issues under discussion include the language barrier, the Internet
culture shock, security and privacy protection in Asia and the Middle
East, the Asian and Middle East dilemma and future telecommunication
infrastructure.
“Bahrain is the ideal platform for this event in the Middle East
because of its advanced business infrastructure, the high level
of IT penetration in business, academia and personal use and
because of Bahrain’s pioneering efforts in the liberalisation of
the telecommunications markets, the advances in e-government and
its leading role as a banking and financial centre in the region,”
said Shaikh Ali.
“The summit will also provide a unique opportunity for the IT and
telecommunication industry leaders to meet policymakers from the
world’s largest and fastest growing markets.”
Kuwait’s Transportation, Planning and Adminstrational Development
Minister Shaikh Ahmed bin Abdulla Al Ahmed Al Sabah gave the keynote
address.
International Telecommuni-cations Union (ITU) regional representative
to the Arab states Ebrahim Al Haddad, Egypt’s Telecommunications and
IT Minister Dr Tareq Kamal, Tunisian Telecom-munication Technology
Minister Dr Mumtasser Ouaili and Pakistani Minister for IT and
Telecommunication, Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari also spoke at the opening
session.
Countries represented at the summit are: Afghanistan, Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran,
South Korea, Kuwait, People’s Democratic Republic of Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Qatar, Russia,
Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey,
UAE, Vietnam and Yemen.
An industry forum will be held today, in which leaders from the
industry will provide an insight into the trends and advances in the
information age.
The summit will conclude this evening with a Bahrain Declaration.