NEWS
ITA organises the
first Interregional
Standardisation Forum
for PKI and eTrust
Oman
development
to contribute
to record
retail spend
A
project to build a major shopping mall
in Muscat will contribute to the rapid
acceleration of the retail sector in the Middle
East. Trade from the Mall of Oman, which
will feature 350 outlets in 137,000 square
metres of retail space, will contribute to the
growth of the GCC’s retail sector expected to
hit a high of USD 313 billion by 2021.
Along with other developments such as the
City Centre Al Jazira in Abu Dhabi and the
Mall of Saudi in Riyadh, the Mall of Oman
will utilise technology to transform the in-
store experience.
A
forum has been held in Oman on
bridging the standardisation gap in
the hyperconnected world.
Participating in the event held at
the Conference Hall of the Public
Authority for Civil Aviation, were The
Information Technology Authority,
represented by the National Digital
Certification Centre and the Arab ICT
Organisation, and the International
Telecommunications Union.
Also present were a number of
government officials, international
experts, representatives of Arab and
African Digital Certification Centres and
ICT professionals.
On the importance of public key
infrastructure (PKI) Omar Bin Salim
Alshanfari, Deputy CEO for Operations
16
INTELLIGENTCIO
at ITA, said: “The big challenge facing
governments and businesses alike is how
to keep up with the tremendous progress
in the digital world and keep their services
and networks away from the cyber
threats increasingly rising worldwide.
“In this respect, there’s the need to shift
to strong eTrust services to verify the
user’s identity through the internet such
as the PKI which is becoming a must have
technology since it provides a wide range
of applications dealing with the identity
authentication, confidentiality, access
control and security.”
“Audiovisual innovations are the biggest
game changers for transforming the
atmospheric and spatial qualities for GCC
Smart Cities and smart interiors,” said Dr Dolli
Daou, Director, Association of Professional
Interior Designers while at InfoComm
Middle East and Africa (MEA), the region’s
largest professional audiovisual event. As
malls transform into shopping destinations,
live events are increasingly common for
them to differentiate themselves from the
e-commerce experience.
“GCC malls are no longer only about
shopping – with mall operators and retailers
transforming malls into entertainment
destinations,” said Hans J van den Berg, CEO,
AudiCom Middle East.
InfoComm MEA was held under the
theme of ‘See the Future of Networked
Communications’ and hosted more than
100 exhibitors from 20 countries.
“In this context, ITA developed the
regulatory framework and the integrated
infrastructure for PKI in accordance with
the eTransactions law issued in 2008 by
the establishment of the National Digital
Certification Centre.”
www.intelligentcio.com