Dubai Government's eTransformation Strategy put under the microscope

Dubai, April 1, 2013: Dubai eGovernment (DeG) Department recently concluded its third eTransformation Forum themed "Together towards Leadership" as part of its efforts to push the wheel of eTransformation forward towards an integrated, digital and knowledge-based society. The Forum mainly focused on Dubai Government's eTransformation strategy presented by the Department and aimed at boosting Dubai's transition into a creative knowledge-based city in the 21st century.

The event was attended by around 150 leading figures from Dubai government entities, including directors general, executives and IT, human resources and strategic planning directors. A large number of these leading figures concerned with formulating and implementing the eTransformation strategy participated in the discussions of the forum.

The forum was the culmination of the strenuous efforts exerted by Dubai eGovernment with the government entities and the sectorial committees affiliated to Dubai Executive Council with the aim of promoting the eTransformation strategy in the emirate to achieve integration among Dubai government entities, improve operational efficiency and contribute to developing human capital to ensure the provision of the best integrated eServices that live up to the aspirations of citizens, residents, visitors and businesses while complying to the highest standards of quality and reliability.

In his inaugural speech to the forum, H.E. Ahmad Bin Humaidan, Director General of Dubai eGovernment, underlined the importance of this forum as an interactive

platform to look into the components and themes of Dubai Government's eTransformation strategy. "The eTransformation strategy has been designed to raise the bar of excellence of government work and government services with the aim of putting Dubai forward as the perfect example of integrated, knowledge-based cities in the 21st century. This necessitates government efforts to be unified for optimal investment in human resources, sophisticated technologies and existing potentials to carry on this successful path towards creating a highly competitive economy based on knowledge and innovation, in line with the UAE National Charter 2021, which aims to transform the UAE into one of the best countries of the world."

"The strategy reflects our strong commitment to the piercing vision and prudent directives of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who has stressed the necessity of providing creative eServices round the clock through innovative channels, particularly mobile phones, for achieving leadership and building a knowledge-based society. The forum reaffirms our keenness on enhancing co-operation with our strategic government partners in order to achieve government integration and connectivity and hence serve the eTransformation process", added Bin Humaidan.

The forum featured a range of presentations by a team of experts from DeG, including a presentation on Dubai Government's eTransformation strategy, suggested performance indicators, initiatives and means of implementation. It further shed light on the actual status of Dubai Government's eTransformation, based on the results of a recent telephone-based survey conducted by the Department in co-operation with Dubai Statistics Centre for over 1100 people to measure how often the individuals and businesses in Dubai use the eServices offered by Dubai government entities and how far they are satisfied with these services.

Later, Wesam Al Abbas Lootah, Assistant Director General of Dubai eGovernment, talked about the implementation of the connected government as embodied in the model of government service bus, this being a basic enabler of excellence in the integration of services as it helps facilitate the linkage of government services and systems in a flexible, secure, cost-effective and highly speedy manner through the provision of a unified infrastructure and a central connectivity system among government entities that allow the information required for completing government transactions to be exchanged.

Lootah pointed out that other enablers include the successful methodology of work; legislation, policies and governance; approval of the unified identification number and the standard for exchanging documents and information in order for a large number of high-quality government eServices to be away from the current situation where most of these services are not connected, forcing customers to check with several government entities to obtain the required approvals.

Meanwhile, Dr. Okan Geray, Strategic Planning Consultant, Dubai eGovernment, talked about Dubai Government's eTransformation strategy and its three-year objectives, adding that the strategy covers eGovernment, business sector and the public and is aimed at taking Dubai's eTransformation process to new milestones in line with Dubai Strategic Plan 2015 to seamlessly build a knowledge-based society and a connected government. He further pointed out that the Strategy and Governance Department has conducted several researches and benchmarking studies for a number of countries and cities that owned eTransformation strategic plans. Based on these researches and studies, the department laid down performance standards and criteria for quality and policies, he added, noting that this helped evaluate the quality of the eServices provided by local government entities in order to meet customers' needs for creative eServices through innovative channels at all times and locations.

"The customer centric approach is aimed at reaching higher levels of user satisfaction and adopting the necessary eServices that can help promote Dubai's competiveness worldwide across this knowledge-based era", concluded Geray. 

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About Dubai eGovernment:
Dubai eGovernment is a pioneering initiative in the region to provide government online services across the spectrum of corporate and community life in the emirate. Dubai eGovernment officially directs and supervises the implementation of the process of eTransformation in over 30 government entities and is one of the world's only governments to have established an official eGovernment branch in the capacity of an independent department.

Dubai eGovernment utilizes multiple innovative electronic channels to facilitate interaction and transaction with government services for citizens, residents, visitors and businesses with the goal of making the life of people much easier in their dealings with the government. The official Dubai Government public portal (www.dubai.ae) highlights government initiatives and facilitates the customers' access to more than 2000 service from the services of several government departments, while the official corporate portal of Dubai eGovernment (www.deg.gov.ae) provides information on the strategy, goals and achievements of the department.

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© Press Release 2013