KUWAIT: His Highness Sheikh Salem Al-Ali Al-Sabah Informatics Award announced yesterday that the late Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah won the Informatics Medal in its 20th edition, in recognition of his humanitarian leadership and in honor of his memory with the historical and pivotal role he played.

The Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Award Sheikha Aida Salem Al-Ali Al-Sabah said in a press statement that this award is still "unable to express the appreciation over the amount of work the late Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad provided to the world in various fields." In this way, the late Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad gained the highest international institutions' appreciations, also the right and merit of leading humanity and the principality of humanitarian work.

Sheikha Aida added informatics was one of areas at forefront of late Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad's priorities and interests, based on an insightful vision, anticipation of the future, an understanding of movement of history and an ambition to see Kuwait possessing all elements of modernity and comfortable living, recalling his saying that the striving strategic vision for Kuwait is to be a regional center, as well as advancing in trade, financial services and information technology services.

She commended the major technical achievements that the late Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad pioneered at the national level, establishing basis for his digital strategic vision, including the Singapore and Kuwait collaboration on an e-government, which led to the establishment of the Central Agency for Information Technology (CAIT) in 2006 and the establishment of the Communications and Information Technology Regulatory Authority (CITRA), in addition to the issuance of electronic legislation in 2014.

The Informatics Award received his unprecedented historical patronage in 2006, therefore it was the first patronage of a head of state for an information award and lasted 14 years throughout his reign, as this sponsorship included all the award's activities, including the Global Informatics Forum, she explained.

The late Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad's high patronage also included the Informatics Academy, offering free courses to encourage students, as he also sponsored Hackathon competitions implemented by the award to stimulate creativity and innovation skills among students of public and private universities, she added.

She recalled the words of the late Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad who said that their most valuable wealth was their children, and their best investments were to invest in developing their capabilities and skills, as they were the focus, purpose and means of any development, underlining that this guidance had a great impact on the energies of the participants in this competition and the emergence of their technical talents, which were embodied in innovative projects that dazzled their supervisors.

The late Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad's merits did not stop at sponsoring the previous award's activities, but was also embodied by honoring winners of Informatics Medal at global level, in addition to honoring winners of information prize presented by the award at level of Arab world annually, she said. The award, under the patronage of the late Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad, became one of the most prominent Arab and international awards in its field in a short period, given that it had encouragement and guidance so that it topped its peers at Arab and international levels, she emphasized. - KUNA