On the occasion of the Southern Governorate winning the Excellence Award in Communication with Customers for the year 2020, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Southern Governor, held a virtual meeting with officials and staff members of the Southern Governorate, in the presence of Brigadier Isa Thamer Al Dosari, Deputy Southern Governor.

During the meeting, HH Shaikh Khalifa expressed pride and appreciation to the care provided by the Wise Leadership, headed by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, and the leading role of the Respected Government, spearheaded by His Royal Highness Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Prime Minister, and supported by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, in highlighting the important role of governmental work in achieving comprehensive development, progress and prosperity, through ensuring the quality of services provided to citizens and residents in all social, security and service fields.

His Highness asserted that the award indicates the governmental role played by the Southern Governorate in the fields of coordination and effective community partnership, which comes in line with the directives of HE General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, Minister of Interior, to meet the visions and aspirations of citizens and residents, and achieve the Governorate's role to enhance communication with them, in order to convey their needs to the different government bodies and follow up on them.

Additionally, HH the Southern Governor valued the sincere efforts and dedication of the Southern Governorate staff members in bridging relations between the Governorate, and citizens and residents, while utilising the latest smart channels and applications to receive their suggestions, views and complaints, reiterating the Governorate's keenness to implement the concept of community partnership through electronic platforms to improve its services.

For their part, the attending employees thanked HH Shaikh Khalifa for hosting the virtual meeting and appreciated his continuous support, which inspired them to accomplish more achievements and gains. which contribute to reinforcing the success and excellence of the Southern Governorate, as well as its leadership in the field of serving citizens and residents.

It's worth mentioning that the Kingdom of Bahrain is committed to the Government's approach to continue enhancing efficiency, providing the highest standards of service quality and utilising the best technical solution. Therefore, the National Suggestion and Complaint System (Tawasul), is considered as one of the distinct examples of joint work between national bodies to provide a better environment for communication between Government institutions and the public.

Moreover, Tawasul contributes to reducing the gap between citizens and officials, through alleviating the existing pressure on public institutions and reducing dependency on paperwork, while at the same time ensuring the implementation of the principle of justice and equality among all beneficiaries of Government services, by providing a permanent and direct communication channel between citizens and Government officials through one application and website.

Tawasul system gained wide international welcoming and recognition, placing the Kingdom of Bahrain as an international role model with regards to government support to innovative national initiatives, by providing the best services through multiple channels and expanding participation and public interaction. Tawasul also works to deliver the suggestions or complaints to Government institutions with attachments and sets a specific time period to respond to the complaint.

95 per cent of the received applications through the app or the National Portal is responded to in the pre-set timeframe. In 2020, a percentage of 99.5 percent has been achieved in the same regard. Tawasul won the His Highness Shaikh Salem Al Ali Al Sabah Informatics Award 2019, in addition to being selected among the 10 best governmental technology projects in the Arab world, in the category of Projects and Technical Solutions.