Online & mobile phone Google email, scheduling, and business document management capabilities further strengthen UAE e-governance status
The UAE Ministry of Foreign Trade has announced that it has integrated applications from Google, the popular internet search engine, to support its email, scheduling and business document management activities. The Ministry thus becomes the first governmental institution in the Gulf to formally adopt Google services in its daily operations.
The decision to include Google capabilities in the Ministry's system was reached after a thorough study of potential service providers which explored the following areas: e-security, reliability and performance, use of the labeling classification system instead of the traditional volume-based scheme, automatic archiving, rapid search and retrieval, ability to repel random letters, and access via the internet and various models of mobile phones.
"This latest initiative to enhance automation throughout the Ministry is part of our intensive efforts to streamline our operations and expand our services. It also reflects our commitment to government-backed efforts towards a digital society. As the world's fastest and most popular search engine, Google enables us to efficiently maintain and manage critical information. The Google project will also be of significant help in maintaining the UAE's status as the Gulf's most electronically-enabled government," said Halla Lootah, Director of MoFT's Government Communications Relations Department.
The UAE ranked first in the Arab World in terms of e-government readiness in the latest eGovernment Survey conducted by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. It placed 32nd overall among 192 countries and was fifth in terms of transaction services, outperforming countries such as Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the US. The Emirates was 12th in the web measurement index, which measures the online presence of national websites and selected ministries.
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