Dubai eGovernment provides the right blue print for Arab governments, says Salem Al Shair

Al Shair was addressing a workshop on e-governance projects held in Medina, Saudi Arabia, under the patronage of His Royal Highness the Emir Muqren Ibn Abdel Aziz Al Saud, the Emir of Medina. The workshop on e-governance covered a number of related issues and topics, with a special focus on the Arab world.

Addressing the workshop on the Dubai eGovernment experience, Al Shair said: "Dubai eGovernment was driven by the mission to break down bureaucratic walls by encouraging people to carry out public transactions through their PC's. The IT revolution has given us the opportunity to improve performance of government entities in a region that had, since long, barely seen changes on government level. The ultimate aim of Dubai eGovernment was to introduce a Digital Economy that would integrate the UAE with the rest of the world," said Al Shair. "In just three years, Dubai eGovernment has been able to achieve its targets and currently offers more than 600 eServices, using an infrastructure that matches with the best in the world."

"HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum's eVision has pioneered the eGovernment revolution in the region enabling Dubai eGovernment to serve as a role model for the rest of the Arab world. Our strength is that we have implemented solutions keeping Arab sensibilities and special requirements of the region in mind. Arab governments implementing e-government initiatives can benefit from our experience and avoid some of the mistakes we made, as we pioneered the e-government solution for the Arab world."

Listing the requirements for successful implementation of e-governance, Al Shair commented that the first prerequisite was to provide clear vision and direction, followed by strategic planning and quick, decisive actions, guided by international benchmarking standards. As IT is the core of any eGovernment, there is a strong need for establishing a flexible, robust and scalable infrastructure. Finally, it is essential to involve the community through focused outreach and awareness programmes."

"The key to the success of Dubai eGovernment is the commitment and dedication shown by the various government departments in integrating with the Dubai eGovernment platform," said Al Shair. "Even though many of the departments had developed their own online services, they chose to abandon their programmes to join the integrated system of Dubai eGovernment. Today, people can avail of the services of most government departments online by using the unified portal, www.dubai.ae. They can make payments online and do not have to go to the individual websites of government departments to carry out the transactions."

"Dubai eGovernment has provided an easy solution to long queues and frequent trips to different departments. With a little practice, most people can conveniently carry out public transactions from their homes or offices, quickly. Dubai eGovernment's next stage of development will be seamless integration, the ultimate aim of any e-government. This will put us among the handful of governments that have achieved this goal on one hand, and turn Dubai into the regional hub of the New Economy on the other."