Dubai's e-Government strategy makes global impact

The conference, which saw the participation of several governments including Spain, Italy, Switzerland, European Commission, Dubai, Singapore and Greece, was conducted under the auspices of the Southern Europe, Africa and Middle East regional segment at Sun Microsystems.

"Dubai's participation at this conference alongside hi tech governments of other countries is significant evidence of the international recognition that our e-government initiative has received. Dubai e-Government has begun to make its mark in global circles because of its total commitment and continuing endeavour to introducing e-services in all aspects of business and community life, " said Salem Al Shair, Director e-Services, Dubai e-Government. "We take our inspiration from the farsighted vision of H.H. General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Defence Minister to make Dubai the leading business hub in the new economy."

"Dubai e-Government is constantly on the lookout for ways and means to upgrade the services we offer on our portal, www.dubai.ae. The conference provided us with an opportunity to interact with other governments thus giving us a chance to leverage their experience and customise it to meet the specific requirements of Dubai's situation," he added. "One significant difference between the European and Dubai e-government systems is that our citizens do not have to pay taxes and this simplifies our online procedures considerably."

The conference focused on Sun's technology solutions related to e-government and included participation from governments that have invested successfully in Sun's e-government solutions. Most of the presentations dealt with the technological aspects of the solutions implemented by Sun in various countries ranging from topics like the electronic DNI project in Spain and trans-border co-operation in support of pan-European government services.

Al Shair's presentation focused on the reasons that led to Dubai adopting e-government practices at all levels of government. He pointed out that in order to ensure the transformation of Dubai into a leading player in the New Economy, it has become important to enhance the quality of services offered by the government to its citizens. Extensive electronic services have been incorporated into each government department in Dubai in order to facilitate the lives of citizens and businesses and reduce red tapeism and unnecessary queues. Dubai e-Government's vision also includes the integration of the e-services offered by all 24 government departments through a single gateway.

With the long term objective being to build a Dubai lifestyle portal rather than just a gateway to the government, Dubai e-Government commissioned an IT infrastructure based on open standards that would meet the highest demands of reliability, scalability and security. In order to offer upgraded e-services to the citizens, Dubai e-Government has implemented a Sun solution that includes Sun ONE architecture, integrated network management tools and high availability. The benefits of the highly scalable and flexible solution include no single vendor lock in, rapid time to market, maximum uptime and an integrated secure environment.