publish time

17/11/2015

author name Arab Times

publish time

17/11/2015

3rd E-government Forum 3rd E-government Forum

KUWAIT CITY, Nov 16, (KUNA): Kuwait is well-placed and qualified for achieving the optimal benefit from the internet in providing world-class services in various domains, Vice President and Middle East Regional Director of the CISCO Mike Weston said. Kuwait also is able to take effective initiatives to use the new generation of Internet services, he said in his speech at the Third E-government Forum (EGOV3 Forum), which kicked off Sunday under the patronage of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al- Hamad Al-Sabah. Weston pointed out that the use of smart technology would help the Kuwaiti government cut spending, increase productivity, diversifying income resources and providing distinguished services to citizens.

Weston also advised government agencies to develop software applications to provide better, time and cost-effective services. Meanwhile, EMC Vice President and Gulf and Pakistan Regional General Manager Habib Mahakian said the cloud service and big data are the main pillars of the smart cities across the globe as they boost efficiency and availability of e-government services. EMC is a global leader in enabling businesses and service providers to transform their operations and deliver information technology as a service (ITaaS). Mahakian noted that the egovernment services help create job opportunities, harness the skills of human resources and boosting economic development plans.

General Manager of IBM Middle East and Pakistan Amr Refaat said that the investment in cloud computing, big data analysis, and social networking systems would improve efficiency and creativity of public and private companies. He pointed out that the world is undergoing a programming revolution that necessitates huge efforts to cope with. Meanwhile, General Manager of Microsoft Kuwait Charles Nahas stressed that Microsoft is committed to cooperation with Kuwaiti government to develop information technology infrastructure and encouraging invention and creativity through the technological solutions it offers. He stated that Microsoft help Kuwait develop the skills of national cadres in charge of information technology sectors.

Meanwhile, Regional Vice- President-ME Fortinet Alain Penel said that the information security threats to the government agencies is one of the major challenges facing the government around the world. He underlined the urgency of finding effective solutions to such threats. Penel cautioned that these threats are no longer accidental, but rather deliberate and smart as many are trying to infiltrate into the stored data for different purposes. Failing to discover such hacking operations at the appropriate time has grave ramifications, he added. The three-day forum, themed “Information Management and Security,” focuses on the security threats facing the information society due to the growing information systems hacking and piracy problems.