Dubai eGovernment online services reach 600 mark

Addressing a seminar on 'eGovernment - Challenges & Opportunities' organized by Dubai University College (DUC) in Dubai recently, Al-Shair said, "Dubai eGovernment had reached the transactional stage of the project and was pushing towards the seamless integration stage which signifies total amalgamation between all government departments through the single portal www.dubai.ae."

"Around 79 per cent of eGovernment portals globally are still in the emerging and enhanced stages, while 19 per cent are placed in the advanced interactive and transactional categories," said Al-Shair. "This is a significant achievement for Dubai eGovernment considering that it went online with just 14 services in October 2001 and today there are close to 600 online services available, compared with several other developed countries which had a head-start and are still lagging behind."

Al-Shair explained that all efforts were now concentrated on accelerating the pace towards the seamless phase with the collaboration of different government departments. While all government departments have websites, Dubai eGovernment's function is to standardize its contents and link them to the single portal (www.dubai.ae). Services such as ePay and eJawaz, which allows for a single sign-on facility will increase the momentum toward seamless integration.

"It is practically impossible to offer all services online, because there will always be certain services that would require the manual processing, such as the registration of births," explained Al-Shair. "Our goal is to have the majority of services online and we are on course to achieve that objective. Our aim will always be to put the customer first, even in the case where the services has to be delivered manually or in a hybrid form."

Al-Shair urged the younger generation to lead the movement towards eCitizenship by supporting the community outreach programs of Dubai eGovernment. "It is the youth who can bridge the gap between technology and the older generation, to enable Dubai to have literate eCitizens and be the leader of the Digital Age in the Middle East region."

Dr. Mahmoud Awan, Assistant Professor, College of Business Administration, DUC, said, "the prime need of any eGovernment is to be customer-centric and build trust with the community. Among the advantages of eGovernment is that it makes all citizens equal and promotes transparency in all dealings. It eliminates bureaucracy, corruption and harassment of people."

This seminar was second in the series of events on related issues of eGovernment organized by DUC. Among the other speakers were Ahmed Behrozyan, Head of eGovernment Services, Dubai Municipality and Nauman Ahmed, Government Solutions Specialist, Microsoft and Abdul Rahman Al Matyoei, Director General of Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry was among the prominent people attending the seminar.