Dubai eGovernment’s initiatives at providing essential government services through innovative channels have been commended during the International Conference on Technology (ICT) that was held from February 4-7 in Cairo.
In a presentation made by Dubai eGovernment’s eServices Director, Salem Al Shair highlighted the government’s efforts in enhancing the delivery of public services to the region by improving government interaction and reducing bureaucracy traditionally associated with governmental departments.
“Dubai eGovernment was proud to showcase its portfolio of eServices to the upper echelons of the Middle Eastern business community, as we are committed to promoting the development of eGovernance throughout the region. The eGovernance system translates directly into good governance, developing a transparent relationship between citizens and governments where there is no place for corruption or ineffectiveness,” said Al Shair.
“Very soon, citizens and residents of Dubai will only see the government officials on TV or in the newspaper, as visitors to any government department will not need to deal personally with government staff or even need to know where the services are provided from,” Al Shair added.
Dubai eGovernment has recently introduced several new initiatives directed at achieving 90 per cent of the government’s services provision through non-conventional means by the end of 2007. Through Dubai eGovernment’s comprehensive web portal, citizens, residents, visitors and business enterprises can access more than 2,000 electronic services, including payment of traffic fines, payment of Municipality fees, applying for visas for friends and relatives, renewing health cards, company registration, among others.
The multi-channel approach of Dubai eGovernment encompasses four broad elements – the web portal, www.dubai.ae; the mobile portal, http://mobile.dubai.ae; mDubai, the mobile channel for communication with government departments via SMS, and the bilingual call centre AskDubai.
Cairo’s ICT is one of the region’s premier technology events that attract representatives from some of the world’s largest IT firms. This year’s ICT witnessed several major product launches and tackled hot issues in both business and technology.
“We look forward to making use of similar international platforms to showcase the achievements of Dubai eGovernment and share best practices to help other governments in the region achieve their eGovernance objectives,” concluded Al Shair.
Dubai eGovernment is a pioneering initiative in the region to provide online services across the spectrum of corporate and community life in the emirate. It also has a vision to integrateindividually automated government departments under the single umbrella of the eGovernment initiative, thus empowering employees across lines of businesses and levels of government, besides facilitating the lives of citizens and customers of the government. Dubai has taken a lead in the region in deploying eGovernment applications and is among the first few governments in the world to provide such integrated services to its citizens. The eGovernment portal (http://mobile.dubai.ae) is a single contact point masking the complexity of the bureaucratic procedures, and guiding access to all services in the easiest possible way. In addition, the eGovernment initiative seeks to improve and enhance procedures by maximizing the benefit from technology, so that users from all walks of life will be able to utilize the portal for their specific needs with considerable ease.
