Abu Dhabi, June 13, 2005 - The e-Government High Committee on Monday expressed satisfaction with the progress made on the implementation of the initiative to date and discussed future implementation phases.

"What has been achieved so far is a boost to the project and a vote of confidence that the remaining phases of the project will be successfully and speedily implemented, " said H.E Khalid Bustani, Assistant Under Secretary for Revenue and Budget at the Ministry of Finance and Industry (MOFI) during a meeting for the High Committee here, attended by a number of officials.

Saying that " cooperation between all parties concerned is vital for achieving the goal of a high performance government," Bustani stressed that "the United Arab Emirates" advanced regional and global performance in areas of trade, finance, and infrastructure should be complemented by a competitive e-environment, which has, in this day and age, become a pre-requisite for successful and efficient servicing and management."

The initiative aims at providing more responsive, more efficient, more effective and more personally inclusive government services. It is to cater for civil servants and the public alike, with servicing the business community being at the forefront of its objectives. It hopes to improve interaction and collaboration between the public and private sectors through a number of e-services using various communication channels that include Internet, mobile phones, and specialized service centers throughout the country.

The general plan of the e-government also includes special training programmes for government employees to familiarize them with the new and challenging technology that this environment will introduce.

As well as reviewing the progress of the e-government initiative, the meeting also addressed the phases to be completed this year, which include e-portal, e-project, the Human Resources Management System (HRMS) and the Financial Management Integration System (FMIS) projects.

According to a review of achievements, in addition to the official launch of e-portal, numerous workshops were held to explain the initiative and the technology update needed by ministries and federal entities to accommodate it, ahead of launching the Content Management System in November 2005

The review also showed the notable progress made in implementing the first phase of the e-projects initiative, with the initial phase completed in nine weeks rather than the 3 to 4 months originally slated for its conclusion. Also, two out of the 15 agreed upon e-services, will be launched this year.

Similarly, several workshops were held to familiarize officials with the HRMS initiative, and work is currently underway to identify and specify services related to the project, which aims at providing services for the federal employee, to include, this year, the posting of the UAE civil service law and civil servants' individual information.

The committee also reviewed the latest developments regarding the implementation of the FMIS initiative, considered to be the backbone of the Standards and Procedures (PSP) project. Relevant Information Technology (IT) infrastructure, security and administrative framework of the initiative was completed, according to the presentation.

The meeting also addressed the steps taken to implement e- messaging, which is aimed at routing urgent messages from officials to senior administrative employees through the effective use of technology.

Also, presented during the meeting were the Policies Standards and Procedures (PSP) project. It, according to the presentation, aims at developing and maintaining a set of essential standards and policies that would regulate all e-government projects, as well as updating these regulations when the need to do so arises.

In addition, the e-government team will work in cooperation with e-company to issue a quarterly newsletter aims at highlighting the latest issues related to e-government and the services it provides as well as increase awareness about the efficiency of the e-services.

The Emirates Telecommunications Corporation, Etisalat, is a partner in implementing the e-government initiative, providing technical and administrative expertise in IT and communications, such as identifying appropriate IT software, hardware, specifications and infrastructure to ensure efficient integration between different system as well as ministries and external parties.

E-Government is one of four ambitious initiatives MOFI is undertaking to reengineer government systems with the best international standards. The other three are: Total Quality Management (TQM), Performance-Based Budgeting (PBB), and Executive Training Programme (ETP).

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© Press Release 2005