Rashed Al Mansouri: "The Award promotes the geospatial status of Abu Dhabi Government at an international level"
Abu Dhabi - H.E Rashed Lahej Al Mansoori, Director General of Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Centre (ADSIC), expressed his appreciation for receiving such award, which promotes the geospatial status of Abu Dhabi government at an international level. The Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) honored Abu Dhabi government by granting it a "Making a Difference" award, during the 30th International User Conference, held in San Diego, California (USA), in July 2010. The award was granted in recognition of the outstanding efforts by ADSIC to implement new geographical information and data programs in government departments, and establish a developed e-government infrastructure that serves all citizens of the Emirate.
Al Mansoori also stated that such an award adds to ADSCI's achievements in 2011, whether regionally or internationally. The International Geospatial Conference, held recently in Hyderabad, India, honored the Center by granting it an Award of Excellence in Spatial Geography for Policies and Programs Implementation. The program was chosen among other important geospatial projects in the world. H.E further confirmed that ADSIC entered into international partnerships with geospatial global institutions and authorities, and is eager to benefit from all new information and communication technology means and attract all useful technologies, in order to promote the geospatial concept, provide decent governmental services, and elevate the Emirate progressively to a knowledge community.
Furthermore, Abdul Kareem Al Raeisi, Executive Manager of SDC, mentioned that the conference offered an opportunity to exchange expertise with senior geospatial specialists and service providers in order to familiarize with the latest geospatial achievements. The document which received the award included a brief presentation of Abu Dhabi Geospatial Information Program and stressed on the importance of such program, the continuous community development, and the international attention echoes. Al Raeisi also stated that ADSIC was a main speaker at the conference and gave a presentation titled "Towards Geo-Mature Abu Dhabi" in which it explained how geospatial empowerment is aligned with the Abu Dhabi Vision 2030, and supports decision making. He also pointed out to the stages required to achieve maturity in the geospatial field, and program development, as well as the strategic features in the upcoming stage.
From his side, Mohammad Abu Zayad, General Manager of GISTEC the corporation that organized the conference & agent of ESRI in the Middle East, stated "The UAE is considered a fast developing country and the development made so far by the Abu Dhabi geospatial community proved to be the typical model ADSIC offers for information and electronic systems in terms of providing a developed geospatial infrastructure in collaboration with the Emirate's government authorities," adding, "we expect ADSIC to present many new projects at the Seventh Session of GIS WORX 2012".
ADSIC also showcased its activities and initiatives, mainly information on Abu Dhabi Geospatial Portal with a stand at the exhibition area. ADSIC's team answered the questions of visitors who expressed their appreciation for the Geospatial Portal and ADSIC's efforts with respect to the electronic changes of the government services in the Emirate.
It is noteworthy that Abu Dhabi spatial data Program was launched in June 2007, as initiative taken by Abu Dhabi government as part of the government's e-program supervised by ADSIC. Such program aims at facilitating the exchange process of geospatial information between government departments and authorities, and other stakeholders.
More than 40 members take part in such initiative and they are all responsible of hundreds of Geospatial data available at Abu Dhabi Spatial Data Centre, and on Abu Dhabi electronic geospatial portal, geoportal.abudhabi.ae. Two years after its launching, the program received an award in June 2009 from ESRC for "best Geographical Information System Achievement", in recognition of its outstanding achievements compared to those of different countries around the world. ADSIC was also granted a "Making a Difference" award at ESRI User International Conference held in July 2010, in San Diego (USA), and became a member of the Geospatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) Association.
The GSDI Group monitors a network of data exchange channels between departments, as well as criteria, policies, and procedures, which provide collectively, a supportive environment for the geographical data preparation and coordinated exchange. The initiative also focuses on a series of criteria and world reliable practices related to all geospatial data infrastructure aspects that were adapted to meet Abu Dhabi's needs and special status. Moreover, the common vision and partnership between the members of such initiative are keen on satisfying the needs of Abu Dhabi government and supporting the government operations, as well as providing more efficient services, and developing a geospatial flexible environment that facilitates geographical data access for the community members. Such steps foster Emirate's development, bring to light application development and importance of geospatial technologies in Abu Dhabi, and stress on the crucial progressive role of such technologies in our daily life. Furthermore, such initiative plays a vital role in facilitating, coordinating, and supporting geographical information systems by coordinating the geospatial information exchange required to provide services efficiently to many community sectors, and planning for Abu Dhabi's future.
-Ends-
ABOUT ABU DHABI SYSTEMS & INFORMATION CENTRE:
In late 2005, the Abu Dhabi Government--under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Armed Forces, and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council--began work on a far-reaching service transformation programme that transcends all Government departments, authorities, and administrations. This programme strives to make the Abu Dhabi Government more effective and efficient in delivering modern services to its diverse customer base along a multitude of delivery channels. It is empowered by optimal information technology (IT) solutions and fulfilled by a highly skilled work force--and in today's e-transformation terms, has the key objective of establishing a modern, efficient, and constituent-centric e-Government to match the best in the world.
To develop, drive, and support the various initiatives within the Abu Dhabi Government service transformation programme, the Abu Dhabi Systems & Information Centre (ADSIC) was created as a Committee in October 2005 by Executive Council Decree No. 33, and established as a Centre in December 2008 by Law No. 18. The Centre is considered as the governmental party that owns the IT agenda of the Emirate, and has the authority to practice the following competences:
- Supervise the implementation of the e-Government programme in Abu Dhabi Government entities (ADGEs).
- Sponsor initiatives and mature assets and competencies that it deems of critical importance for the e-Government project.
- Propose policies and technology standards for government and relevant entities to achieve a comprehensive quality in reaching the highest levels of efficiency, confidentiality, and safety in the e-Government project.
- Issue rules and guidelines regarding the implementation of IT policies and the technical specifications, and communicate them to all the Government entities.
- Submit the guidelines to the Council regarding the IT sector and the e-Government.
Building on the strategic vision for a service-oriented government in Abu Dhabi, ADSIC developed a government-wide service improvement and e-Government Strategy together with an implementation Masterplan. This was accomplished through a six-step development framework that functionally analyzed gaps between the current state of ADGEs' service delivery and the service-oriented target state; proposed initiatives to correspond with action areas needed to reach the target state; and documented an implementation plan that included financial and human resources requirements.
For more information, please contact:
Rani Saddi
PR & Communications Manager
Abu Dhabi Systems & Information Centre
P.O. Box: 3133
Tel: 02- 6717000; Fax: 02 6717333
E-mail: pr@adsic.abudhabi.ae
Web site: www.abudhabi.ae
© Press Release 2011
