Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 49 | Page 12

NEWS Oman Ministry of Technology and Communications launches high-speed government network Ministry and Omantel hold tech challenge T he Ministry of Technology and Communications in Oman together with Oman Broadband and Ooredoo has launched the high-speed Oman Government Network (OGN). This network is an integrated and safe government network that meets the future demands of e.oman projects, like the G-Cloud, the Official Oman eGovernment Services Portal, the National Data Center and other e.oman infrastructure projects. Dhafir bin Saif Al-Kalbani, Director General of Infrastructure, Ministry of Technology and Communications, said: “The high-speed Oman Government Network replaced the current OGN in 63 government entities in Muscat including all ministry headquarters and some of their main branches in the capital. “They were linked using fibre optics networks in a way that helps these entities in benefiting from the new network to provide their eServices with a better quality and a speed that reaches 1 GB in all government sites. “Moreover, the new network will play a role in upgrading the capacity of the OGN’s ISDN lines and elevating its quality while decreasing the previous costs. Our hope for this network is for it to have a vital role in supporting a quicker Digital Transformation process in Oman and serving all important sectors like health, education, manufacturing, tourism, economy and other sectors through providing high- quality eServices.” A government ministry in Oman has held the Sas48 challenge to emphasise the utilisation of Fourth Industrial Revolution solutions in partnership with Omantel. The fifth edition of the Sas48 competition witnessed the registration of 520 applicants and they all started in the ideation phase that aims to develop the participants’ ideas and explain the challenge phases and evaluation criteria. The competition’s ideation day was a full day hands-on workshop that focused on idea generation and validation, with a Fourth Industrial Revolution session including pitch rehearsals. During the day, individuals pitched their ideas and teams were formed and unattached individuals were allocated spaces based on the skills needed by 12 INTELLIGENTCIO each group. After the ideation workshop, all teams were asked to submit their business idea to Sas within three days for evaluation. A total of 20 ideas competed in the challenge which was held at Omantel premises for 48 hours.The Sas48 challenge seeks to nurture the culture of entrepreneurship and encourage champions to think creatively and establish new businesses. The competition is specifically targeted for last year college students, jobseekers, professionals and anyone interested in the mobile apps and web development field. Participating teams included members specialising in programming, mobile app development, web development, design, entrepreneurship, project management and marketing. www.intelligentcio.com