Muscat: The jury members of Sultan Qaboos Award for Excellence in eGovernment 2018 began their discussions at Kempinski Hotel, Almouj, on Sunday in the presence of Dr Salim bin Sultan al Ruzaiqi, CEO of Information Technology Authority.
The jury committee consists of a number of international and local experts in eGovernment and participated in evaluating several international awards in the same field.
Dr Al Ruzaiqi said, “We’re pleased to begin the evaluation of the competing projects participating in the 6th edition of Sultan Qaboos award for Excellence in eGovernment which reflects the progress made by government, private and SMEs in the delivery of eServices. We trust that the carefully selected jury committee will make their decisions with complete impartiality and will provide detail reports consisting of recommendations and ways for improvements for the participating projects to enhance the eServices in the sultanate.”
Over the next 5 days, the jury committee will evaluate 64 submitted projects: 47 projects from government entities, 9 projects from private organisations and 8 projects from SMEs.
The jury session is final phase of the selection process of the winning projects and it works independently and impartially abiding by the award’s rules and guidelines, hence, the results of the jury committee are final and not subject to change. The award comprises 10 categories, 3 of which were newly added, distributed for government, private and SMEs sectors.
The 2 new categories are for government entities which are Best Open Data Initiative and Best Government Application for Smart Devices.
Whereas the third new category is specified for the private sector to the Best Private Application for Smart Devices.
The government entities can compete in 7 different categories, namely: Best Open Data Initiative, Best Government Application for Smart Devices, Best government eService — individuals, Best whole of government Project, Best eService supporting doing business, Best Practice in Community eParticipation and Best eTransformation achievement.
The private organisations can compete in two categories namely: Best Private Application for Smart Devices and Best Private eService. Besides, the Private sector ICT Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) can participate, in one category: Best SME eService.
The Sultan Qaboos Award for Excellence in eGovernment started in 2010 to honour digital projects that have provided exceptional achievements and innovations. The Award also aims to improve the quality of eServices and simplify its procedures to ensure greater confidence and public contribution. — ONA
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