Dubai e-Government unveils plans to add advanced offerings in 2003

The plans for 2003 were discussed in the presence of department heads and senior members of 20 government organizations, who met at the Dubai e-Government offices to reaffirm their continued co-operation in the coming year in the light of the successes and achievements of 2002.

The high level meeting focused on leveraging the individual strengths of the various departments in order to devise professional and cost effective integrated strategies that could be implemented across the various departments. The meeting discussed ways in which they could best share their expertise and benchmark best practices, in order to offer new and innovative services to the citizens.

It was attended by representatives from the Dubai department of Awqaf, Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dubai Civil Defence, Dubai Development Board, Dubai Airport Freezone Authority, Dubai Civil Aviation, Dubai Municipality, Dubai Police, Dubai Ports Authority, Dubai Transport, Dubai Economic Development, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, Department of Health and Medical Services, the Land Department, Dubai Naturalization and Residency Administration, Etisalat, Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing, the Financial Audit Department and Public Prosecution. A representative from the Ministry of Labour and Public Affairs was also present at the meeting.

Salem Al Shair, Director, e-Services, Dubai e-Government presented glimpses of the future vision of Dubai e-Government saying that the new year would see the advanced phases of several integrated projects that began in 2002. "The year 2002 laid the real foundation of Dubai e-Government and provided glimpses of the first hands-on application of interactive online services. Some of the notable achievements were the launch of a more advanced content management system and the unveiling of e-jawaz and e-pay," said Al Shair. "Our greatest achievement included the complete integration of the Department of Health and Medical Services (DOHMS) website within the e-Government portal www.dubai.ae, thus becoming the first department to join the integrated platform, hosted by Dubai e-Government and display the advanced online applications. In the coming year, Dubai e-Government will migrate to a more dynamic stage where the people will be able to get the real feel of the online platform to carry out several transactions through a single sign-in facility."

The launch of the advanced phase of e-pay, an interactive facility that allows people to carry out multi-transactions through a single sign-in system (e-jawaz), which identifies registered users before providing access to various utilities and services in March 2003 will see a host of government departments integrating their web offering with the Dubai e-Government portal www.dubai.ae, enabling customers to pay their bills and fines online, as well as seek out information on any government services. e-pay which is already linked to Dubai Police, Dubai Municipality, Comtrust, Ministry of Finance and Industry and others, will enable the people to have the various utility bills and fines to be paid through a choice of modes of payment at one go through e-jawaz. The next stage will entail inter-bank links for epayment, notification by email, post and direct debit (from bank to bank).

Other highlights of the coming months include the launch of the advanced version of e-Job, a unified platform for job seekers and recruiting departments, a sophisticated call center, an emergency team available round the clock for trouble-shooting, services through mobile devices such as SMS and e-4all, a training program to facilitate the enhanced benefits of Dubai e-Government.

"We are now on course to take up the task of offering the full range of shared services and provide integration with all e-services of the different departments, to translate into reality the primary objective of easing the lives of the people by giving them the facility to carry out government transactions electronically," said Al Shair.

"An emergency team ready to spring into action at the first sign of trouble will be in place round the clock. Its responsibilities will include providing expertise to prevent security breaches, advise departments on precautionary steps to be taken, provide necessary software for security and keep itself updated with developments on the security front," he added.

The representatives of several government departments detailed their plans for the forthcoming year, emphasizing that such high level meetings facilitated the decision making process and enabled the departments to implement the services.

"The Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) has upgraded its services considerably with the introduction of online services. Clients can now deal very comfortably with the DCCI via the Internet and do not need to make several trips to the DCCI. Currently, about 15 per cent of the 1000 export certificates issued per day are processed online and this number is expected to change drastically as more countries begin to deal electronically," said Abdul Rahman Al Mutaiwee, Director General Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry. "We aim to work towards the integration of information networks among the government departments in order to unify the systems and bring about a reduction in the expenses of the individual departments."

Hussain Lootah, Director Assistant General, Environment and Public Health and the Head of the e-Government team at Dubai Municipality said, "We have implemented several steps in e-Government and have announced many e-Services. It is now time to move towards greater integration with other departments through the Dubai e-Government portal, as this will generate a more positive response. We are currently working together Dubai Ports Authority and will soon have a tie-up with Etisalat and DEWA to provide integrated e-Services for the citizens."

Obaid Saeed Bin Meshar, General Manager Etisalat, Dubai Region further explained the collaboration between the Dubai Municipality, Etisalat and DEWA. "The three departments have come up with a unique concept of an e-NOC (No Objection Certificate) which can be applied for online and which will shortly be available through the Dubai e-Government portal. The e-NOC will enable clients to avail of the joint services of the three departments without having to go from one department to another."

Nasser Butti Al Shamsi, IT Director, Department of Civil Defence underlined the significance of such a high level meeting, saying that it helped to create greater transparency and trust within the government. In particular, he welcomed the integrated content management system, devised by Dubai e-government. "All government departments utilize this centralized system to upload and manage the content on their individual websites in a uniform manner," he said. "The next step that we are working towards is to export all our database and information to the e-Government portal so that it can be managed better by us through the uniform content management system."

Ayesha bin Beshr, web content developer at Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) emphasized the need for the formation of a high-level committee, which could act as a platform for the exchange of ideas and suggestions, in order to further enhance the websites of the various government departments and bring about greater integration. "The DTCM is already linked to the Department of Economic Development and we use the licence program on the DED website. In addition, we use a link developed by the DED to input economic information on their site," she said. "The integrated content management system implemented by Dubai e-Government is extremely well-developed and on par with world standards thus facilitating us to upload and manage content in a highly cost effective manner."

Dubai e-Government will continue to provide an integrated content management service to all government departments through updated software and set benchmarks for the departments along international certifications such as BS 7799 and ISO 17799. In addition it plans to put together a more dynamic outreach and marketing campaign, which includes a customer relationship program. Suppliers from the IT sector and electronic document delivery service will also be evaluated.