One Card (www.onecard.com), the electronic service provider of the National Technology Group, received the Raqmi award for Electronic Business in a ceremony held at the Intercontinental Riyadh, on January 16, under the patronage of His Excellency Engineer Mohammed Jamil Bin Ahmed Mallah, the minister of the Saudi Information and Technology Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Telecommunication.
One Card was presented with the Raqmi award for its innovative Internet portal, which offers a unified gateway to Arabic online services and products. More than 150 government organizations vied for the award and only 13 reached the final stage.
One Card offers subscribers a unified point of access to online Arabic content through a number of agreements with content providers. The portal is designed to facilitate access to dispersed content, and offers a powerful one-stop platform for current affairs, articles, news services and other premium material.
The award was handed out to Engineer Rashid Al Ballaa, Board Member of the National Technology Group, in the presence of senior executives from the Saudi Ministry of Industry and Telecommunication, the Information Technology Commission and the Prince Abdul Aziz Science and Technology Centre. The ceremony was also attended by representatives from various Saudi banks, private organizations and the Saudi E-Government.
Mr. Muhannad Ebwini, the General Manager of One Card, said, “We are proud to receive the Raqmi award, which is the first of its kind in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and arranged by the Saudi Ministry of Industry and Telecommunication and the Information Technology Commission. We received this award because of our constant effort to improve access on Arabic content in the Internet. We will continue to gather more online partners so our clients will have an even wider range of online services to choose from.”
One Card allows two convenient modes of loading credits to a client’s account. Users may load credits to their One Card accounts through their credit cards, or they may purchase pay-as-you-go One Cards, which are readily available in different shops, for a limited credit account. Once credit has been loaded, clients may then use their One Card accounts to pay for any product or services offered in One Card’s portal.
The awards body was directed by a committee of professionals from related fields, and followed critical standards in evaluating the competitors. The award aims to improve and enhance the Arabic Internet content, help spread educational information through Web sites, support Arab talents in the field of Web design and provide digital information that is in accordance with the culture and traditions of Saudi Arabia.
The Raqmi awards were handed out to deserving recipients from five different categories: Electronic Business, E-Government, Electronic Education, Electronic Culture and Electronic Health. One Card, which aims to provide electronic services to all Internet users through only one prepaid card, received the award for its contribution in Electronic Business.
Motivated by its success in Saudi Arabia where it was a ground-breaking venture, One Card aims to expand throughout the GCC and other Arab countries.
