Dubai on par with top EU states in 'e-services' - Madar Research

The test, carried out by Madar Research Group, showed that Dubai was on par with top European Union states in the online availability of the basic services offered to businesses and individuals.

"Dubai government has made significant progress in 2002 in migrating its basic services, especially those offered to businesses, on the Internet," said Abdul Kader Kamli, president and research director at the Dubai Media City-registered Madar Research. "The benchmark test gave Dubai an overall score similar to that of the United Kingdom, which ranks fourth in the European Union in terms of the online availability of basic public services," said Kamli.

Dubai scored 76 points out of 100 in the benchmark test that measures the services' online availability and the level of that availability - whether a service could be fully completed and transacted through the Internet. The test covered 19 public services -- nine for businesses and 10 for individual users -- which are considered most essential, or are most commonly used by companies and the general public in Dubai. Such services related to visa and driver's license applications, birth and marriage certificates, job search, utility payments, as well as registration of new companies, municipality permits and fees, customs declaration and other basic services.

The study by Madar Research is based on a benchmark test standardized by the European Commission to gauge the comparative progress of e-services development in EU member countries. Madar Research followed the same methodology but used localized test criteria.

Among the major findings of the study, which was completed beginning December 2002, is that 44 percent of the e-services made available for businesses are fully transactional, while 30 percent of the services offered to individual users have attained the same level, receiving full score. Some basic e-services are still under development.

Madar Research Group, however, noted that the test is merely designed to measure the online availability of these services and does not constitute an evaluation of any other criterion for online services such as ease-of-use, functionality, accessibility over a single platform or personalization.

The benchmarking is part of a study that dealt with over 200 main 'e-services' offered by the Dubai e-government. The complete study is published in over 10 pages in the first issue of Madar Research Journal that was out for subscribers in end of December 2002.

Other research reports in the same issue measure telephone density in the Arab world, and explore Egypt's 'e-landscape', the development of e-learning in Jordan and e-banking in Qatar, as well as ICT initiatives in Syria, an investigation into the deployment of supercomputers in the Arab world, and the top 10 ICT deals made in Arab countries during the last quarter of 2002. The monthly journal, which specializes in New Economy market research, also offers analyses on market trends and emerging market sectors in the ICT industry.

To help spread a research culture in the region, Madar Research Group has uploaded a complete PDF copy of the journal's zero-issue for free download from its website, www.madarresearch.com.