E-Government in the Arabian Gulf: A Vision toward Reality

This paper presents a review of the e-government initiatives in the Arabian Gulf countries that form the Gulf Cooperation Council, GCC. Throughout the region, extensive efforts are being made to capitalize on the cyber technologies and enhance the government to citizen service. The described cases are from Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman,. While the efforts vary in size and intensity, what appears to be common is the top level support the e-government initiatives are receiving, which offers them visibility and hopefully warrants their eventual success. The collective message delivered by the examined cases is that e-government is becoming an integral part of the respective countries life with a byproduct being an increase in society’s cyber-literacy.