KUWAIT, Nov 19 (KUNA) -- Prominent engineer, Manar Al-Hashash, was chosen to represent the State of Kuwait in the Board of Directors of the World Summit Award (WSA) Prize 2006, announced Monday the Minister of Communications Maasouma Al-Mubarak.

Al-Mubarak noted, in a press conference today, that Al-Hashash had been the first Arab female from the Middle East to be appointed with experts from 170 WSA member states.

She noted that Al-Hashash had dedicated seven years to the progress of Kuwait's information society by establishing and managing development projects, especially in the communications field.

Al-Mubarak lauded Al-Hashash's efforts to enrich the educational content of mass communications and to raise the society's standards, hoping success for Al-Hashash in this national, humanitarian mission.

Al-Hashash, on her side, said that a Kuwaiti membership in the WSA prize board would influence the policy of the organization to create a more vital role for Arab and Islamic public in information technology issues.

Al-Hashash is the Founder and General Manager for Dot Design, a software development company. She has also launched the IT magazine 'Dot' of which she is owner and Chief Editor. In 2004, Al-Hashash launched and managed a Local e-Content Contest under the name of "Ghiras electro Contest 2004" which aims at youths in Kuwait (14-22yrs) competing for Best website design, Best Presentation and Best Graphic design.

She was awarded an IEEE for her outstanding Internet and e-Commerce projects in 2000.

Al-Hashash also produces and presents the weekly IT program "Compunet World" on Kuwait Satellite Channel in Arabic in addition to another weekly IT program on KTV2 in English called "Zero Ones". She also writes a weekly IT page for the Al-Watan Newspaper an official daily newspaper of Kuwait.

WSA is a global initiative to select and promote the world's best e-Content, started in 2003 in the framework of the United Nations' World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

The award's program includes national contests, a global contest, held every two years, and numerous content-focused national as well as international conferences and workshops.

WSA is an invitation project and a global hub for everyone, who sees the crucial importance of excellent e-Content creation within the new Information Society.

As of today, 168 countries are actively involved in WSA. New partners from all over the world are always welcome to join this global initiative.