Sultan Qaboos eGov award winners to be feted on Dec 4

The 6th Sultan Qaboos Awards for excellence in eGovernment 2018 will be presented to winners at SQU Cultural Centre, Grand Hall on December 4. The awards will be presented by Darwish bin Ismaeel al Balushi, Minister Responsible for Financial Affairs, and will be attended by government officials and CEOs. The award are given in 10 categories, three of which were newly added, distributed for the government, private and SMEs sectors. The two 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 jury evaluated 64 submitted projects: 47 projects from government entities, 9 projects from private organisations and 8 projects from SMEs. The government sector entities can compete in seven 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. Whereas the private sector’s large 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. In October, the jury committee met in Muscat for 5 days and selected the winning projects in each category.

This year, Dr Belgacem Haba will be the guest of honour who is an Algerian researcher and scientist in microelectronics and Internet. Dr Belgacem Haba will give a talk on “startups opportunities in Immerging Technologies” on December 4 at Sultan Qaboos University for students, entrepreneurs and whoever interested in ICT and entrepreneurship.

Dr Haba holds 489 US patents, and over 1,400 patents and patent applications worldwide. He is listed among the top 100 most prolific inventors worldwide. In 2017 he opened the Haba Institute in Algeria to help young entrepreneurs. Dr Haba has authored numerous technical publications.