UAE Air Force & Air Defence Institute delegation briefed on Dubai eGovernment's advanced solutions

Lieutenant Colonel Saeed and his team were briefed on the strategic objectives of Dubai eGovernment and the progress achieved so far in meeting the goal of providing nearly 70 per cent of public services through electronic channels by the year 2005.

"Dubai eGovernment has become a model of excellence and technological benchmark in eServices. The infrastructure laid with the help of best of breed solutions and a dedicated team have positioned Dubai eGovernment among the most advanced e-governments globally," remarked Lieutenant Colonel Saeed Salim Obaid Al Tounaiji.

"The development made by Dubai eGovernment in online courses provided on the portal, is to be commended. eLearn provides a channel to enhance learning by offering a number of computer proficiency courses that our people could benefit from."

Briefing the delegation on the progress achieved so far, Mahmoud Bastaki, Business Process Re-engineering Consultant, Dubai eGovernment, traced the various stages Dubai eGovernment had gone through. Inspired by the vision of H.H. General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Defence Minister, to establish Dubai as a leading digital society, Dubai eGovernment's principle mission is to ease the life of the community and businesses interacting with the government. "Dubai eGovernment has successfully completed the developmental stages of emerging, enhanced and interactive e-governance; it is now in the transactional stage. The final stage of seamless integration is the next target," he added.

Bastaki referred to the recent United Nations' e-government report that ranked the UAE as the top performer in e-government readiness in the Middle East and Africa region. The rankings were based on the three key indicators: governments' aptitude to employ e-government as a tool to inform, interact, transact and network; telecom infrastructure and human capital index which took into consideration literacy rate and the overall school enrolment ratio.

The UAE Air Force and Air Defence delegation was introduced to the various eServices provided by Dubai eGovernment: ePay, the secure online payment facility; Ask Dubai the interactive contact centre; eLearn providing advanced online courses; eJob the unified platform for job seekers; eEmployee a certification program ICDL (International Computer Driving Licence), mDubai which allows government departments to deliver messages to customers through mobile phones and eLibrary a programme that provides information to the public through online access to books, periodicals, audio-video tapes and compact discs.

Rehab Lootah, eServices Provisioning Manager at Dubai eGovernment, explained how eLearn was helping thousands of people to acquire knowledge through advanced online courses offered in collaboration with established training providers. "We offer more than 3,000 courses in Information Technology, self development, sales & marketing, and languages. These courses are ideal for government departments because they offer the Learning Management System (LMS) which allows the Human Resources Manager to monitor the learning process. Additionally the certificates presented upon completion of a course are recognised internationally and the courses offered are at reasonable prices," added Lootah.