UAE Ministry Of Energy And Infrastructure Wins WSIS Prize For 'Access To Information And Knowledge'

DUBAI, (Pakistan Point News - 12th Sep, 2020) The UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure's geospatial project has been selected by the World Summit on the Information Society Forum, WSIS, among the best of the best in supporting Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, with information and communication technologies, ICTs, towards the betterment of society.

The ministry was awarded the prize for "Access to Information and Knowledge" of the prestigious annual WS0IS prizes for its project "Infrastructure Geospatial Platform", during the virtual WSIS Forum in Geneva, where Hassan Juma Al Mansouri, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, received the prize in the presence of Houlin Zhao, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, ITU.

Eighteen winning projects and 72 champion projects were recognised. This year, a record number of 806 projects were submitted by the WSIS community around the world. Of these, 776 projects were nominated after the deliberation of the Expert Group.

Al Mansouri expressed his pride at receiving this award, especially since the ministry had surpassed advanced countries and that it is a the culmination of its efforts by providing all its capabilities to support the current and future directions of the UAE and measures taken to face emergency conditions and crises.

The UAE Infrastructure Geospatial Platform is a "one‐stop-shop" to deliver trusted, nationally consistent geospatial data and services. It provides a suite of well‐managed, highly available, and trusted geospatial data, services, and applications for use by the government agencies and citizens.

A spatial data platform for the ministry's projects to be used in strategic decision-making in the country as well as improving future planning in cooperation with partners to develop an integrated vision and a comprehensive plan that supports the infrastructure system in the country. The geospatial platform is considered an important tool serving the UAE's goal to be the best country in the world. Also, it reviews the valuable open data of interest to the public, in addition to providing space for electronic communication with the resources of partners.

Now in its ninth edition, the WSIS Prizes winners represent the year’s most innovative and high-impact projects from around the world that demonstrate the vital role of ICTs in achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

The prizes were awarded across 18 categories, each directly linked to the 11 WSIS Action Lines defined in the Geneva Plan of Action.