ITA to organise meet on tech startups
Times News Service
MUSCAT: In order to collect the public opinions and suggestions, the Information Technology Authority (ITA) on Wednesday morning will organise the 7th open discussion session, “#Shorkum”, on the available opportunities and challenges for the establishment of Omani tech startups in Industry 4.0 technologies at the Sas Center for Mobile Apps Development.
The open discussion will be attended by various government entities including Al Raffd Fund, Riyada, ASYAD and Royal Court, as well as a number of decision makers, IT professionals and Omani entrepreneurs in the IT field.
Dr. Salim bin Sultan Alruzaiqi, CEO of ITA; Eng. Yousuf bin Ali Alharthi, CEO of Oman Tech Fund; Dr. Khalid Altahhan, CEO of Blockchain Solutions and Services / Oman; Khalid Alharibi, Founder and Managing Director; and Omar Alabd, Impact and Microsoft Partner Technology Strategist, will participate in the open discussion as the main speakers.
The session seeks to collect public opinions on developing a commercial and investmentready environment to be attractive to the emergence and establishment of businesses in industry 4.0 technologies, in addition to encouraging Omani entrepreneurs to start commercial activities in the field of Industry 4.0 technologies.
It also seeks to discuss the challenges that hinder the establishment of successful commercial projects in the field of industry 4.0 technologies and highlight the experiences of Omani innovators and entrepreneurs in the field and benefit from their suggestions to overcome the obstacles they face.
Besides the open discussion session, an accompanying exhibition will be held to showcase experiences and innovations of Omani tech startups in industry 4.0 technologies, with the participation of (Innotech), Innovation Factory, Impact, Estrlab (Engineering solutions and Technology Research Lap) and the Engineering Village.
#Shorkum is an Arabic word that means “your opinion” and is commonly used among the Arab communities to ask for an opinion or views on certain life-related topics.
eParticipation
From this concept, the #Shorkum initiative was established. It is a communication and community consultation initiative created by the ITA to reinforce eParticipation. It includes a set of channels and platforms to facilitate communication between the ITA officials and various social segments, who are interested and specialised in the IT field, either face-toface or online.
Through this initiative, a number of discussions were held to know the audience’s suggestions and opinions regarding the ITA’s plans and projects.
The implementation of community eParticipation across all the ITA’s social media channels is part of this initiative, which aims at delivering the information to the community members easily and benefitting from their ideas and suggestions in making plans, developing projects and making decisions.