Jordanian official delegation visits Dubai eGovernment to study Dubai experience

The Property Tax Project is a joint programme developed between the Ministry of Finance in Jordan and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Other members of the delegation were Fathi Mahfouz, Programmer and System Analyst, Jihad Attar, Programmer and System Analyst and Omar Bitar, Head of Operations and Networks Section, Ministry of Finance, Jordan. The Jordanian officials were introduced to the state-of-the-art back-end systems that drive Dubai eGovernment and briefed on the goals and achievements so far.

Mahmood Al Bastaki, Business Process Re-engineering Consultant, Dubai eGovernment, took the delegation through the various stages Dubai eGovernment has gone through and explained the vision, mission and new targets of Dubai eGovernment.

Rehab Lootah, E Services Provisioning Manager, Dubai eGovernment, explained initiatives like ePay, e4all, eEmployee, eLearning, mDubai and AskDubai, that have contributed to making Dubai eGovernment such a resounding success. Marwan Al Naqi, Community Outreach Officer at Dubai eGovernment highlighted the marketing initiatives of Dubai eGovernment and the focused community outreach programs.

The focus of the visit was on the use of municipality services from anywhere in the world. The four focus areas were the Payment Gateway, Training for Ministry of Finance teams, Awareness of online service and motivating people to migrate to online channels.

'Dubai eGovernment has always been willing to share its expertise and experiences with other countries, especially fellow Arab states, to enable them to aspire for higher levels of governance. We are therefore delighted to welcome the delegation from Jordan and would like to extend all cooperation now and in the future. We are pleased that Jordan is among the Arab countries that have shown dramatic achievements in IT'.

'Driven by the vision of HH General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Defence Minister, Dubai eGovernment has been able to make dramatic progress within a short period, outpacing some developed countries,' said Al Bastaki. 'Over 20 government departments now offer integrated online services through the portal www.dubai.ae. More than 1,400 services are available online today, and the number will increase further as we near the goal of offering 90 per cent of our services through electronic channels within the next three years.'

The delegation hailed the strides made by Dubai eGovernment and sought information on the infrastructure that have made Dubai ready for advanced online services. The visiting officials thanked Dubai eGovernment for the opportunity and assistance in learning about the systems and services.

The delegation also visited the e-Gate project of Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department, Dubai Municipality, Dubai Police, Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City and the Department of Justice.