ITA Journey to be organised across Sultanate: Tariq
MUSCAT — The noted IT expert, Tariq Hilal Al Barwani, yesterday announced the
first of its kind initiative in the Sultanate branded as “ITA Journey Across
the Sultanate”.
This Information Technology Awareness journey across the country is a move set
to digitise and promote the use, benefit and career of technology in the
community.
In a statement here, Tariq said: “The Information and Communication Technology
medium is a potential engine to empower everyone from poor to rich, student to
professional, and private to government sector as well as to increase their
access to quality education. Everybody should know what this rich medium holds
in store”.
The main objective of the “ITA Journey Across the Sultanate” initiative is to
educate the public, nourish the innovation to the community and promote
digital literacy across the country.
The project will be carried out in two phases, starting from Muscat and then
the next in Salalah. The initiative is being sponsored and supported by
Tariq’s father who has been coaching and guiding him since childhood.
Tariq will be travelling with his father’s 4WD throughout the Sultanate during
his annual leave at work in Nawras. Initially, he will be visiting Nizwa
College of Technology to conduct a presentation on IT Security, Careers and
the Future on December 16.
He is also scheduled to visit Musannah College of Technology and Sohar
Unversity in January to discuss about the several aspects of software
development and innovation, Oman German University of Technology in February
and the Middle East College of Technology in Rusayl.
Tariq was invited by several schools, colleges and companies several times to
conduct presentations and seminars at Deslie Training Institute, Oman Training
Institute, Indian School Al Ghubra, Muscat Private School, Muscat College and
Shatti Qurum School for Girls, on different topics under the umbrella of ICT.
His last presentation on IT careers and technologies at the Sultan Qaboos
University two weeks ago had received tremendous response from the audience
which triggered the idea of “ITA Journey Across Oman”.
“The ITA initiative that I am set to embark on this week is from the northern
most region to the southernmost region of the Sultanate, ensuring that I
solidify His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said’s Progressive Vision to transform
the Sultanate into a Knowledge Society and build a knowledge-based economy,”
said Tariq.
Oman has all the root stocks to become the Gulf ICT (information and
communication technology) hub, Tariq said.
Apart from this initiative, Tariq has also introduced, along with the Ministry
of Information, the first and only information technology programme called
‘CyberTalk’ for the Oman Radio FM 90.4. The programme is aired live every
Thursday from 4-6pm where it presents the latest local and international IT
news, best of breed topics, quizzes and question and answers session. A
similar programme called ‘Raqmyaat’ for the Oman TV Channel 2 was also
introduced for the local TV.
Tariq is currently pursuing his doctorate of management of organisation with
specialisation in Information Technology.