The Grand Jury of the World Summit Award, WSA, part of World Summit for the Information Society, WSIS, which has convened under the UN umbrella, announced that it has chosen Sakhr’s instant translation engine to receive this international award for the period from 2005 – 2007, making Sakhr’s instant translation technology the only engine to receive this award for this year.
The announcement was made in a statement issued by the Grand Jury at the conclusion of its meeting in the Kingdom of Bahrain which lasted for 10 days, starting on the 3rd of September 2005. Thirty four experts gathered for an intense process of evaluation of over one thousand candidates from 168 countries. The result was the selection of 40 products and websites on the WWW to win this international award. Sakhr’s instant translation technology was chosen as the only technological engine worldwide to win the award for the category of e-Inclusion.
Fahad Al-Sharekh, Managing Director, Sakhr Software Co., Kuwait, stated that this award represents a medal on both Kuwait and Sakhr’s chest. He expressed that it is a great source of pride for everyone working at Sakhr throughout the Arab World, and added, “E-Inclusion is actually a movement whose goal is to end the digital divide between people who do and people who don't have access to - and the capability to use - modern information technology; to close the gap between developed and less developed countries; to promote democracy and mutual understanding; and to empower disadvantaged individuals, such as the poor, the disabled, and the unemployed.”
“From the beginning we chose to nominate Sakhr’s instant translation engine, Tarjim, because of the sophisticated technology on which it is based, and also due to the big role it plays in bridging the language barrier for both Arab and non-Arab users who would like to overcome this hurdle so that they may understand content written in other languages,” commented Manar al-Hashash, Kuwaiti consultant expert and member of the Grand Jury, WSIS. She explained that Sakhr, a company which has previously represented Kuwait at this prestigious international contest, will be receiving its award at a large Gala to be held during the UN’s World Summit for the Information Society, WSIS, in November of this year in Tunis, in the presence of world leaders and dignitaries.
“Sakhr has always been a leader, a pioneer in Arab technology. We have always strived to understand local cultures and to anneal modern technology so that it may benefit modern language needs. We are happy to see that the many tens of years Sakhr has invested in this field have realized such success and received such reception – not only locally in Kuwaiti and amongst other countries in the Arab World, but also globally on an international level,” commented Salah Malaeb, General Manager, Research & Development. He added, “The Arabic language has very unique characteristics which makes it very challenging for modern technology to meet its demands. At Sakhr has taken up this challenge. We have developed our machine translation engines based on the extensive experience and advanced technologies Sakhr has accumulated over many years in the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP).” The translation engine developed by Sakhr is a major element on which three of the most important Arabic - English/ English - Arabic translation programs are built. The first is aimed at individuals and can be found at www.ajeeb.com; the second is geared for small business enterprises, a special edition of which will be launched to the markets shortly; and the third, SET - Sakhr Enterprise Translation solution – is aimed at large business enterprises.
A final note: WSIS awards are distributed amongst specialized content categories, these are: e-Learning; e-Culture; e-Science; e-Government; e-Health; e-Business; e-Entertainment; and finally, e-Inclusion, the award which will be presented to Sakhr’s instant translation engine. For more information on these awards, please visit www.wsis-award,.org
About Sakhr:
Sakhr Software Company was founded in Kuwait in 1982, and was relocated in Cairo in 1990.
A leading Arabic software Co., Sakhr develops software specifically tailored to the needs of the Arabic market and Arabic language users. It has developed cutting-edge technologies that have had a strong impact on the Arabic IT industry. The company has also pioneered a new generation of Arabic Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies.
Sakhr opened a branch in the UAE in 2001, located at DIC (Dubai Internet City). Sakhr’s list of clients includes giants such as Intel, Oracle, L.G, Tejari.com, in addition to many other well established global & region companies, governments & ministries, and central banks.
