IBM marks Dubai e-government milestone

IBM has also marked the achievements of Dubai Municipality's e-government team as the Emirates' e-government portal recently passed 380,000 online transactions.

In a letter to the Director General of Dubai Municipality, Christian Raetzsch, IBM's Global Services Executive, congratulated the team on its achievement and underlined the significance of its work in the context of the global movement to create access to government services and facilities using Internet technologies.

"IBM is a service provider to many of the leading government organizations around the world. We are convinced that Dubai Municipality is at the forefront in many areas," said Raetzsch. "We believe that this achievement by Dubai Municipality is significant and deserves a lot of credit."

Raetzsch noted the significance of the transformation achieved by the e-government team, in particular in its work moving government service delivery to an online model and noted the role played in this work at the leadership level within the municipality. "Without the strong support and guidance of its leadership, Dubai Municipality would have found it very difficult to achieve this level of success," said Raetzsch.

"IBM is working with government bodies around the Middle East region today and we are seeing very major achievements, particularly with initiatives being pushed forward in Jordan, Bahrain and Qatar. Dubai's e-government initiative stands out as a prime mover in the area of delivering government services online," said Samer Shaar, general manager of IBM Middle East, Egypt and Pakistan. "The e-government team at IBM was keen to recognize the significance of that effort not only at the regional level, but also in a global context."