Role of Technology in GCC Integration

1
Role of Technology in GCC Integration
2
GCC Countries the current status

• Gulf Cooperative Council
• Members
• Bahrain
• Kuwait
• Oman
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• UAE

3
GCC Trade
4
GCC Trade
5
Integration the Key to Progress

• Progress
• Social
• Economic
• Environmental
• Services

6
Social Progress

• Social Welfare
• Social Security
• Pension and Old Age Support
• Services
• Education
• Primary and secondary education
• Manpower training
• Higher Education
• Healthcare
• Hospital
• Community Clinics

7
Economic Progress

• Standard of Living
• Increase in per capita income
• Job training
• investment
• Job Creation
• Industrialization and Manufacturing
• Research Development

8
Services

• e-Government
• Citizenship (ID) and passport (e-passport)
• Immigration control (e-visa)
• Social Department
• Revenue collection
• e-Banking
• Paperless transactions
• Utility bills payment
• Investments
• e-Business
• Business transactions
• Internet marketing

9
IT the Great Integrator
Social Progress
Economic Progress
Information Technology
Government Services
10
Ingredients of IT

• Information, telecommunications, and computers
  form the backbone of IT.
• Information is a collection of data that conveys
  the status of a system or a command to take
  certain action.
• Telecommunication is a conduit for the
  information flow.
• Computers are machines to process information.

11
Computer Networks and Society

• e-Systems
• e-government
• e-commerce
• Distance learning
• Virtual Networks of Excellence
• Education

12
Benefits of Technology

• e-Commerce is for today and the future
• Region-wide electronic trading system
• Transparency is a very important issue and it is
  driven by technology
• e-commerce will radically alter the structure of
  trade.

13
Challenges

• Limited access to technology
• Low adoption of technology in education
• Limited job opportunities for IT specialists
• Lack of legal framework for new economy and
  market size limitations.

14
Limitations

• Limitations are created by policy inadequacy
  both economic and social.
• We need reforms in Banking, in investment laws,
  property rights
• We need to stabilize, diversify, privitize,
  develop capital markets, and development of human
  resources.

15
Education and Human Resource Development

• Creation of Knowledge Economy and use of
  technology in all aspects of society.
• School dropout rates is climbing and are
  currently highest in the history.

16
The Role of Educational Institutions in
Development