RIYADH, 15 April — Saudi Arabia will hold a major e-commerce conference to be officially inaugurated by Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, here on April 22.
The Ministry of Commerce in cooperation with the Riyadh Exhibitions Company (REC) is organizing this IT event, the largest of its kind in Saudi Arabia, which is sponsored by the Saudi Research and Publishing Company (SRPC), which publishes Arab News.
The theme of this three-day conference is “Going e-government”, which will help the policy planners of the Kingdom to formulate a national plan for e-governance. Saudi Arabia has already set up an Electronic Commerce Standing Technical Committee (ECSTC), which seeks suggestions from an advisory panel composed of private sector representatives.
Referring to the e-commerce conference, Dr. Akram Masri, REC’s technical affairs director, said here that the first day of the event will be dedicated to presentations by the technology leaders on e-commerce and e-government. The focus on second day will be on the initiatives taken by the Middle East countries toward e-commerce and e-governance. On the third day, the focus will shift to the Kingdom with presentations on e-government initiatives and experiences with special reference to Saudi Arabia.
The whole conference, Dr. Masri said, will be divided into 12 sessions, in which 50 high-ranking officials from Saudi government agencies, major national and international companies besides technology providers will participate. Only 1,000 delegates, together with audience including industry leaders, businessmen and IT professionals, will be allowed on a daily basis to attend the sessions at the King Faisal Hall of Riyadh Inter.Con Hotel. They will be required to pay an entry fee of SR1,000.
The Saudi Telecom Company, one of the 30 sponsors of this conference, will unveil its plan for the telecommunications infrastructure and the vital role it will eventually play in future for building the Kingdom’s e-government and e-commerce capabilities. The STC, whose telephone installation rates grew from an annual average of 40,000 lines per year to over 720,000 lines last year, is keen to set up necessary infrastructure.
On the sidelines of this conference, the REC will organize the first international information technology exhibition, which will be opened on April 21. This five-day event called GITEX 2002 will be largest forum of IT professionals and IT companies ever organized in Saudi Arabia.
