According to the e-government program (Yesser), the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities won a leading position among the top ten government agencies that apply e-governance practices.

Dr. Abdul Aziz Bin Mohammed Al-Sheikh, acting vice president of support affairs, pointed out that out of more than 56 governmental authorities that were subjected to an intensive screening program to determine their success applying the practices of e-governance, SCTA ranked first with 83.19 percent (Full Achievement) - from the conceptual point to the provision of intended services.

Noteworthy, SCTA is offering through Saudi National gateway (www.saudi.gov.sa ) more than 13 electronic services, most important of which is the issuance of electronic tourism visa, licenses for tourism and travel license, and tourism trip organization, in addition to SCTA’s electronic calendar, e-tourism, and Tourism Contact Center, etc.

Dr. Al Sheikh stated that work is underway for launching 6 new e-services during 2010, within the framework of converting all its transactions to integrated e-services. The plan includes archiving all SCTA’s printed documents and materials in its electronic library, through a comprehensive search engine. The plan also includes media resources, archiving students’ scholarship information, tourism investment in heritage hotels requests, and entering tourism events into an e-calendar, among other services.

It is worth mentioning that, the “Yesser” program is based on various themes related to electronic services and applications provided by the governmental agencies. The “Yesser” program divides e-services into five stages - paperwork (conceptual) stage; planning stage; development stage; access to services, excellence, and improvement phase; and integrated service provision stage. This program also deciphers main themes at each stage, as well as checking the government’s recognition of the entity’s capacity and ability to switch to the stage of nation-building.

Dr. Al Sheikh said, “Based on its success, the e-governance program has been chosen by most of the governmental agencies that are willing go through the transitional stages from the development and onto provision of services.”

This significant recognition of best of top 10 government agencies to implement e-governance attained by SCTA is considered as an extension of its programs and projects in the field of electronic transactions and information technology. It also comes in the line of SCTA’s propensity, since its foundation, to make the full transition towards e-governance, as well as the use of latest international technology in accordance with the directives of the leadership of the country and the vision of SCTA in this respect.

Notably, SCTA has won numerous national and international awards and certificates in the applications of electronic transactions, as well as the commission has been paid tribute recently by the Communication and Information Technology Commission for its leading role in the application of electronic transactions.