Day: February 15, 2023

Basra, The Basra Governorate Police Command denied what some social media circulated about news of an explosion in the port of Umm Qasr.

The leadership stated in a statement, “While we confirm that the news is not true, we clarify that the accident is a traffic accident involving a Crown car.”

The leadership called for accuracy in transmitting information and finding out the real news exclusively from its official sources.

Source: National Iraqi News Agency

Baghdad, The President of the Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, discussed with the Japanese Ambassador, Matsumoto Futoshi, the political situation in Iraq, the relations of Erbil and Baghdad, and the latest developments in the region in general.

A statement from the Presidency of the Kurdistan Region said: “Barzani received, today, Wednesday, the new Japanese ambassador. The two sides exchanged views on opportunities to consolidate Japan’s relations with Iraq and the Kurdistan region and areas of joint cooperation.”

Barzani renewed, according to the statement, the expression of thanks and gratitude of the Kurdistan region for the efforts and work of Japanese agencies and organizations and the region’s desire to expand the horizons of its relations with Japan, pointing to the existence of the appropriate ground for Japanese investment in the Kurdistan region.

For his part, the Japanese ambassador expressed the readiness of the private sector in his country to invest and expand business and activities in Iraq and the Kurdistan region.

Source: National Iraqi News Agency

Baghdad, The Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fuad Hussein, affirmed: “Iraq has historical relations with neighboring countries, and the basis for dealing with them in the existing relationship is based on respect for sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs.”

A statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated: “The minister and his accompanying delegation held two separate meetings in the US Congressional Building with the Chairman of the Middle East Subcommittee in the Foreign Relations Committee, Democratic Senator Christopher Murphy, and a member of the Financial Affairs Committee, Republican Senator Todd Young. The minister also met with a member of the Foreign Relations Committee. Senator Chris Van Hollen.

According to the statement, the minister presented a review of the current visit to Washington and its importance in opening horizons of economic cooperation with Washington and what was achieved from the outputs of the current meetings, as the focus was on strengthening cooperation in the field of energy, investment and trade, and US support for Iraq in building a strong economy and developing the monetary and banking system in Iraq, expressing Iraq’s gratitude for the role of the United States in building democracy in Iraq and eliminating the terrorist gangs of ISIS.

The minister disclosed, according to the statement, Iraq’s current efforts to achieve stability in the region, adopt the principle of balance in relations with neighboring countries and the region, and establish the best relations based on preserving Iraq’s interests first, as Iraq has historical relations with neighboring countries, but the basis for dealing with the existing relationship with them remains based on respect for sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs and the independence of the Iraqi decision.

The minister emphasized Iraq’s efforts in the field of energy, consolidation of resources, and discussing ways of contracting with foreign and American companies in particular for the investment opportunities available in various sectors. And the development of the energy sector and the development and reform of the banking and monetary system, stressing the urgent need for the support of the United States within this framework.

In turn, during the meetings, the senators affirmed their welcome to Iraq’s role in the region and its balanced relations with neighboring countries and the region, affirming their keenness to achieve the best relations with Iraq, noting support for Iraq’s efforts with the Ministry of Treasury and other relevant parties to develop the Iraqi economy, monetary and financial policy, and the banking sector.

Source: National Iraqi News Agency

Baghdad, The Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fuad Hussein, invited the US Agency for International Development to participate in the climate conference to be held in Basra next March.

A statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated, “The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) hosted Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Fuad Hussein and his accompanying delegation. During the meeting, the minister gave a briefing on the close relationship that the agency has with Iraq for twenty years, and its projects that contributed to providing support to Iraq.”

It added: “The two sides also discussed the most important environmental challenges in Iraq and proposals that can be implemented with the USAID, and the two sides discussed the possibility of providing support for the development of the private sector in Iraq and reaching effective mechanisms to implement the agreed policies, and they also agreed to continue meetings, joint coordination and put forward future plans for the agency’s work in Iraq, and taking the facilities supported by the Iraqi government to provide a better development reality.

In turn, the agency’s director, Samantha Power, reviewed the plans and efforts that the agency is working on, which are in the interest of the Iraqi people and developing the relationship with the United States. The Iraqi government’s plans in providing the best services and looking forward to a better future for the relationship between the two countries were also reviewed by encouraging investment in various sectors, adding that: “The agency can also provide support in the field of the environment through many sub-American institutions.”

In conclusion, the minister invited the agency to participate in the climate conference to be held in Basra next March.

Source: National Iraqi News Agency

Last week’s disastrous earthquakes have shaken the political fortunes of leaders in Turkey and Syria, analysts say. Some see a possible accelerated path to regime normalization for pariah Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while an onslaught of criticism has engulfed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, calling into question his re-election bid.

More than a decade of conflict and blocked borders to aid deliveries have hampered access to the rebel-held area of northwest Syria, decimated by the powerful quakes. Turkey has received the lion’s share of international assistance to date. The Norwegian Refugee Council and 35 other nongovernmental organizations are demanding increased support for Syria’s affected areas, saying “the humanitarian response must match the scale of the disaster.”

Syria expert Charles Lister of the Washington-based Middle East Institute said, “It shouldn’t surprise us that the Assad regime is willing to take advantage of a catastrophic natural disaster to serve its own interests,” citing Syrian government appeals to the United Nations and aid deliveries from the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Iraq and Italy. But he warned against lifting sanctions on the government to further its normalization.

“The main area of exploitation is its demand for sanctions relief,” Lister told the Italian Institute of International Political Studies. “There is no correlation between the sanctions imposed on the regime by the United States, the European Union, Canada or the United Kingdom and the delivery of humanitarian aid. In 2022, the billions of dollars of aid that flowed into regime areas, through Damascus, 91% of that was funded by the four sanctioning entities.”

Lister added that “we do probably appear to be on an accelerated path toward the normalization of the regime, but a lot of it will depend on how the regime responds: whether it is stubborn or more pragmatic as it deals with requests for further aid and how it deals with the governments that continue to press against it.”

Meanwhile, analysts say Erdogan has come under fire for his government’s reaction to the earthquakes, as the death toll rises in the southwest and affects his chances of re-election.

Dorothee Schmid, who leads the Turkey and Mideast program at the French Institute for International Relations in Paris, said Erdogan “was already in a slightly delicate situation because he has not always been leading in the polls last year. Everybody is wondering whether the popularity of the party is going to be damaged by the difficult response to the earthquakes. The party is really on the front line to confront the growing anger of the local population.”

Schmid also said there a debate about whether Erdogan’s “government is totally unable to cope with the situation or if any government would be completely helpless, given the magnitude” of the quakes.

Source: Voice of America

His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, today received a cable of congratulations from the Commander of the National Guard, His Highness General Shaikh Mohammed bin Isa Al Khalifa, on the 22nd anniversary of the adoption of the National Action Charter.

HH General Shaikh Mohammed bin Isa extended to HRH the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, on behalf of the National Guard affiliates, congratulations on the national occasion.

HH General Shaikh Mohammed bin Isa emphasised that the National Action Charter, which was adopted unanimously by Bahraini citizens, will remain a beacon for the Kingdom’s progress and prosperity.

HH General Shaikh Mohammed bin Isa wished HRH the Crown Prince and Prime Minister continued success in achieving the goals of the Kingdom’s comprehensive development, led by HM King Hamad.

Source: Bahrain News Agency

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa received, in the presence of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, senior Royal Family members at the Al-Sakhir Palace.

Senior Royal Family members extended to HM the King deepest congratulations on the 22nd anniversary of the adoption of the National Action Charter, expressing utmost pride in the wide-ranging achievements attained by the kingdom in all fields and the advanced position it has reached at the international level thanks to HM King Hamad’s leadership.

They prayed to Allah the Almighty to guide HM the King on the right path, and to bless him with abundant health and happiness to continue leading the progress march witnessed by the kingdom during his prosperous era.

HM the King welcomed senior Royal Family members, and exchanged with them congratulations on the dear national occasion, expressing thanks and appreciation to them for their noble patriotic feelings.

HM King Hamad said that the glorious historic day is an opportunity to recall with pride the patriotic stances of the beloved Bahraini people on the referendum day, noting that the adoption of the National Action Charter paved the way for embarking on a promising march of building the kingdom’s institutions and constitutional branches, noting that the fundamentals of the National Action Charter will always remain a catalyst for Bahrainis to continue building the nation, consolidate the role of legislative institutions and broaden the scope of popular participation in accordance with a developed democratic approach.

HM the King also expressed satisfaction with the remarkable great presence of youth in the Royal Family.

HM King Hamad said: “I am very pleased with the presence of our young members on this historic day for our dear homeland, which heralds a bright future based on commitment to serving the homeland and citizens, each in their position. I see this in the faces of these promising young members who are committed to the path of the fathers and forefathers who founded this dear homeland and constructed it perfectly. We look forward to their contributions to this solid foundation towards a brilliant future that confirms the permanence of the global standing of our beloved kingdom among nations.”

HM the King congratulated the Bahraini people on this glorious national occasion, wishing the kingdom further progress and prosperity.

HM King Hamad commended the efforts of Bahraini citizens to serve their homeland and protect its gains, affirming the kingdom’s steadfast determination to continue enhancing its progress march to further strengthen its status among developed countries and meet its citizens’ aspiration for more progress and prosperity.

During the meeting, HM the King reiterated the kingdom’s full-fledged solidarity with the brotherly Syrian and Turkish peoples, and keenness to deliver all kinds of support to help them overcome the effects of the devastating earthquake that had struck their countries recently.

HM King Hamad expressed pride in the humanitarian efforts exerted by the search and rescue taskforce of the Bahrain Defence Force’s Royal Guard, under the supervision of National Security Advisor and Royal Guard Commander, Major-general His Highness Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, within the “Arms of Relief Operation” currently carried out in the quake-affected areas in Türkiye.

In this regard, HM the King appreciated the massive positive response of the citizens and residents to the national campaign organised by the Royal Humanitarian Foundation to support those affected by the earthquake in the two countries and alleviate their sufferings, praising the RHF’s humanitarian role.

HM King Hamad emphasised the noble humanitarian role played by the Kingdom thanks to its authentic approach in providing relief to the needy and those affected by various disasters in brotherly and friendly countries.

Source: Bahrain News Agency

Information and eGovernment Authority (iGA) Chief Executive, Mohammed Ali Al Qaed participated in The World Government Summit 2023 (WGS 2023) hosted by United Arab Emirates, during 13-15 February 2023 in Dubai city.

WGS 2023 was remarked with the participation of key governments’ leaders, ministers, senior officials, policy makers and global experts from governments, private sector, and NGO’s from more than 150 countries around the globe.

iGA Chief Executive praised the well-organization of the United Arab Emirates for this remarkable event which has been held under the theme “Shaping Future Governments” and aims at the exchange of knowledge and expertise to contribute to in the government development across the world. In addition to addressing the most prominent current and future global challenges to improve people’s quality of life.

As part of WGS 2023, Al Qaed participated in the “Future of Work” forum organized on the 2nd day of the summit, in a panel discussion under the theme “The Future of Employment: Skills and Strategies for Success.

The panel also included Kersti Kaljulaid, the 5th President of the Republic of Estonia government; Jean Koh, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Digital Platform Government at Republic of Korea; Amandeep and Bhangu, Journalist at BBC.

The session was moderated by Doron Avni, Google VP of Government Affairs and Public Policy Emerging Markets.

During the session, Al-Qaed stressed on the importance of participation in this global event to highlight Kingdom of Bahrain experience and initiatives in reinforcing the development of government work, in-light of the royal vision of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, and the continuous support and directives of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, and Prime Minister, in employing modern technologies and Artificial Intelligence in various sectors including the government work process.

He added that Bahrain has been focused on various modernization initiatives in-line with development plans outlined by its 2030 Vision. Al Qaed also praised the continuous support and follow-up by His Excellency Lieutenant General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, Minister of Interior and Chairman of the Ministerial Committee for Information and Communications Technology, in employing ICT and digital transformation.

This has been demonstrated by the various supportive legislations and policies that support in providing attractive environment for international companies and fostering the emerging technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT), and big data analytics.

iGA CE explained that the move towards employing modern technologies and the use of AI has become essential requirements to build a strong economy as it provides a range of possibilities and business re-engineering support that attract business capital.

He stressed that strong economy, will add great value in creating new job opportunities in the public and private sectors more than the jobs that may be eliminated due to the automation.

It will also contribute to re-structure the jobs to be with higher wages, in line with the direction of Kingdom of Bahrain headed by HRH the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, which drives us to boost our progress and initiatives.

Al-Qaed emphasized that the government of Kingdom of Bahrain has provided the enabling environment that reinforce national ICT skills in the government as well as private sector through number of national initiatives that can foster innovation in Bahrain.

The “Cloud First” policy, launched in 2017 and the training program launched by iGA and the Labour Fund (Tamkeen) to train more than 900 Bahrainis in cloud skills in AWS and Microsoft contributed greatly in reinforcing their ICT skills and readiness by boosting their capabilities in dealing with hands-on practices to be well-ready for their future jobs.

He also showcased the initiative of “BeAware Bahrain app” which was launched by iGA as a response to COVID-19 pandemic. This initiative has been a unique example of innovative solution that was developed within only two weeks, taking the advantage of the Kingdom’s cloud readiness. Al Qaed Explained that BeAware framework has been integrated with a multiple set of government systems and AI has been utilized, pointing to its many advantages, including its ability to utilize Big Data for detecting interactions and infections with an accuracy rate 30%, in addition to the app ability in reducing the cost of random health checkups dramatically and business continuity to sustain the economic growth.

iGA Chief Executive also highlighted that Bahraini government became the first public sector in the Middle East and Africa to fully migrate its workload (70 entity) to the Cloud environment and empowered more than 25,000 government employees to adopted Microsoft’s Cloud solutions, which have enabled them to safely and securely work from distance during the COVID-19 pandemic and continue the public service delivery to the citizens and residents.

On the other side, this has raised the productivity of employees through saving more than 100,000 working hours per week by removing the time spent commuting to physical meetings.

In regard to the investment in the national skillsets, Al Qaed mentioned that the University of Bahrain has introduced a one-year cloud computing professional certificate, along with a full Cloud Computing bachelor’s degree, being the first in the Middle East, in collaboration with AWS Educate Cloud Degree initiative.

AlQaed stressed that Big Data collection and analysis are the most prominent opportunities and challenges in digital transformation. He highlighted that Cloud Computing has contributed in reshaping the storage, sharing and reachability of files through cloud environment.

He pointed out that the Kingdom of Bahrain has invested this feature through the launch of the National Real Estate Databank, which will contribute greatly to provide comprehensive real estate database. The backend of the system has been developed using the Datalake for Bahrain project through cloud computing services AWS.

He also mentioned several on-going initiatives and projects based on employing artificial intelligence and cloud computing. This includes the launch of the Open Data platform on the cloud to enable individuals and businesses to utilize government data to accelerate innovation.

Moreover, Kingdom of Bahrain is establishing a Genome Centre and leveraging cloud platform to process genome datasets to support health practitioners in Bahrain provide better health services and diagnostics to people in Bahrain.

It is worth mentioning that the World Government Summit 2023 (WGS 2023) hosted 20 heads of state and government, in addition to more than 250 ministers, 10,000 businessmen, government officials, thought leaders and global experts.

Source: Bahrain News Agency