Dubai eGovernment's Community Outreach & Marketing Committee decide to launch pilot project for cross-promotion

The decision was taken at a recent meeting at Dubai eGovernment offices to discuss the action plan that was formulated to promote increased awareness and usage of eServices by businesses and citizens interacting with the various government departments. The board includes representatives from various government departments in Dubai, as well as officials from Dubai eGovernment, which is playing a key role in managing this programme.

"The project is aimed at generating excitement and enthusiasm among the participating government departments and keep Dubai eGovernment's goals in the foreground," said Marwan Al Naqi, Acting Manager, Community Outreach and Marketing Department, Dubai eGovernment. "The progress of eGovernment is closely linked to the level of participation shown by the different departments. This project ensures that employees of all departments will understand the greater purpose of eGovernment and look towards working together rather than in isolation."

The committee passed a number of recommendations in a bid to enhance the outreach programme. The recommendations included providing media support to all departments; a newsletter to promote eGovernment at all departments; forming a media committee comprising key journalists for who will be acting as an advisory board for the media campaign to promote the eGovernment initiative and the setting up of a subcommittee to coordinate eGovernment's participation in major exhibitions and conferences.

"Over the past year, we have made significant progress, and at present the number of eServices being delivered online by various government departments is close to the 600 mark. We are on course to offering the full range of shared services and providing integration of all eServices," said Al Naqi.

The action plan will be implemented at various levels. Specific target usage for each eService, which has been laid down as a short-term objective, will be compared against current usage figures. In addition, wide-ranging awareness campaigns will be initiated to encourage citizens to make greater use of the electronic IT services, with a continuous comparison of pre-set goals against the achieved usage figures followed if necessary, by a review of existing policies.

The awareness campaigns will focus on streamlining the eServices by promoting the single gateway for all eServices through the Dubai eGovernment portal www.dubai.ae. In addition, the Advisory Board will work towards developing cost effective promotional campaigns through the centralized use of financial resources. It will also actively promote the use of the Internet and electronic communication to all citizen segments.