Kuwait Finance House - Bahrain (KFH-Bahrain) was announced as the gold sponsor of the 2nd Gulf eCommerce Forum, which was held at Regency Intercontinental Hotel, Bahrain, on November 24-25, 2008 under the theme "e-Transactions Security and Readiness". The Gulf eCommerce Forum is an international forum for business and researchers to exchange strategies and information relating to advancements in the state-of-the-art and practice of e-commerce. The objective of the forum was to establish Bahrain as the centre of choice for e-commerce within the Middle East by nurturing successful partnerships and fostering infrastructure development to serve the citizens and business community. The forum addressed major challenges for the GCC in terms of e-commerce, which included the lack of efficient credit policy and management, inadequate telecommunications infrastructure, lack of credit information and the lack of legal framework. Commenting on this sponsorship, Mr. Abdulhakeem Alkhayyat CEO and Managing Director of KFH-Bahrain, said "Information and Communication Technologies are powerful enablers for development. They promote foreign investments and help capture economic opportunities that increase process efficiency, the expansion of economic networks and encourages job creation." "We need to realise that both the government and business sector need to work hand-in-hand to generate greater investment opportunity in the ICT sector to foster entrepreneurship and to stimulate innovation. Collectively they can play a larger role as innovators, investors and job creators, to effectively address various issues that can hinder the spread of information technologies and eventually create the right environment that sustains a digitally-enabled economy," Mr. Alkhayyat added. The Conference, was divided into four sessions, each presided by a senior industry figure. Various topics were discussed, including: Electronic fraud, its effect and impact on national economy; Electronic and economic crimes, their reasons and how to face them; E-Commerce security - privacy and confidentiality; and E-Commerce Security supporting infrastructure. Bahrain is striving to become the eCommerce hub in the region, and the concerted efforts from the government and business sector are contributing to realise this goal. The forum was organized by the Gulf Knowledge Economy, under the chairmanship of Dr. Jamal Al Duaij. "KFH-Bahrain's initiative to sponsor the forum was welcomed." he said, "We would like to thank KFH-Bahrain for supporting the 'Second Gulf eCommerce Forum'."