Sharjah Government entities continue to unveil technology projects on the 4th day of the exhibition

United Arab Emirates - Dubai : His Highness Sheikh Khalid bin Mohammed bin Zayed, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Office visited the Sharjah Government Pavilion at the GITEX Technology Week 2019, received by Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Qasimi Director General of eGovernment Department at the region’s premier technology event, which will run until 10 October.

UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi and UAE Minister of Community Development Hessa bint Essa Buhumaid

Both the Ministers also toured the Sharjah Government’s Pavilion where up to 33 Sharjah government entities are showcasing their latest innovative initiatives, reflecting the ongoing digital transformational drive in the emirate.

In the meantime, Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Qasimi, Director General of the Sharjah Department of e-Government, received Sultan bin Abdullah bin Hadda Al Suwaidi, Chairman of Sharjah Economic Development Department, Ohoud Shehail, Director General of Ajman Digital Government, and Eng. Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Al-Hajri, Director General of Roads and Transport authority, a number of dignitaries, head of departments and representatives of government entities.

Dr. Aisha bint Butti bin Bishr, Director General of Dubai Smart Government as she toured the Sharjah Government’s stand. They discussed ways of cementing cooperation in the field of technology transfer in order to accelerate the adoption of digital transformation by all UAE government departments with the ultimate goal of ensuring more efficiency, safety and customer happiness.

Keeping pace with the multi-faceted growth of digital transformation in the emirate, the Sharjah Government’s departments participating in the global event unveiled a range of innovative applications and services, reflecting the Sharjah Government's strategy to stimulate creativity and innovation, and to enhance efforts aimed at optimising government work performance.

Commenting on the event, Sheikh Khalid said that the technological launches of the third day of GITEX 2019 promote the ongoing digital transformation drive initiated by the emirate, and supports growth and competitiveness across all Sharjah government’s departments and entities.

“The efforts exerted by all the emirate’s government departments inspire a positive spirit, and generate a great impact on the UAE society. In the same spirit and determination, we are moving steadily to make the UAE in general and the Emirate of Sharjah, in particular, a role model for excellence and adoption of innovation and creativity to ensure social welfare and economic wellbeing.”

An impressive range of technological breakthroughs

At the Sharjah Pavilion at GITEX Technology Week, a number of government departments have unveiled their latest innovative projects and services to promote the digital renaissance now witnessed across the emirate.

With the objective of ensuring an ideal urban environment, the Directorate of Town Planning and Survey launched an Artificial Intelligence-based response and automated execution of transaction system, using the WhatsApp for providing quick, automated replies to customers' inquiries. The Directorate also launched an innovative system for displaying analytical boards dedicated to the allocation of land and transactions conducted by municipal councils.

Engineer Khalid Bin Butti Al Muhairi, Chairman of the Directorate of Town Planning and Survey, explained that the Directorate is launching a new range of smart services in line with best international practices adopted globally to ensure customer satisfaction.

”These include the implementation an integration process through the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority to link the Directorate with the Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship (ICA) and the Ministry of Interior in order to ensure a streamlined flow of data, optimise performance, promote innovation, and guarantee customer happiness.

“The Directorate of Town Planning and Survey delivers customer-centric solutions tailored for meeting specific business needs. The Directorate ensures the renewal of land grants and the issuance of official maps according to the ‎proof of origin on an instant basis as an electronically approved document. The QR code has also been deployed to make it easy for any department to get an original copy from the Directorate’s database. The Directorate is also the first in the country to launch an AI-based response and automated execution of transaction system, using the WhatsApp App for providing quick, automated replies to customers' inquiries,” Al Muhairi added.

The Department of Islamic Affairs launched a comprehensive internal App that displays detailed data on all the mosques located in Sharjah and their locations on the map. The App also displays the mosques where Friday prayers are performed along with preachers' names. This is in addition to showcasing a list of mosque libraries, their data and locations as well as updated statistics on these mosques and their employees.

His Excellency Abdullah Khalifa Yarouf Al Sabousi, Director of the Department of Islamic Affairs in Sharjah, said that the Department is keen to participate in the global event every year to launch and showcase its most prominent services and electronic systems.

“This is our sixth participation in a row in the GITEX Technology Week,” he said, praising the Department’s Information Technology team for their efforts.

He hailed the Department’s winning of the GITEX Award 2019 stressing on the Department’s achievement through launching the “Sharjah Mosques” Smart App.

Sharjah Centre for Learning Difficulties launched the Centre’s website and smart app. The Centre conducts assessment and diagnosis of persons with learning difficulties at the educational and behavioural levels, and in terms of cognitive, social and behavioural skills. It aims to provide services to people with learning disabilities of all ages, genders and different nationalities residing in the UAE.

Dr. Hanadi Al Suwaidi, Centre Director, explained: “The App is a quick detection tool for people with learning difficulties, gauging how far a person is suffering from these difficulties. Assessment and diagnosis come as a next stage through the App, as the person concerned moves to the Center to book an appointment for evaluation and accurate diagnosis, if the App shows he/she suffers from such difficulties.”

Dr. Al Suwaidi added that the main advantage in the App is that it’s user-friendly for specialists, teachers and even students’ guardians.

“In the past, only specialists could have detected the case according to certain criteria that were time and effort consuming. Now it doesn’t take more than five minutes through the App, which is the first of its kind across the UAE and the entire Arab region to detect such difficulties.”

She noted that the App is free. “The ultimate goal is to offer quality services through the Sharjah Centre for Learning Difficulties. We are always seeking to ensure quality and integrated services, and we hope we can be able to deploy the App everywhere and help all concerned to benefit from its advantages.”

Through its participation in GITEX 2019, the Sharjah Research, Technology and Innovation Park (SRTI Park), aims to develop and manage an innovation ecosystem that promotes research and development and supports enterprise activities and the triple helix collaboration of industry, government, and academia in the fields of Water Technology, Environmental Technology, Renewable Energy, Transportation Technology, Information Technology, Industrial Design and Architecture, and works to support national industries that fall under these themes.

Hussain Al Mahmoudi, CEO of SRTI Park stressed the importance of the Park’s participation, which, he said, “translates the vision and strategy of the Park with regards to the introduction of future technologies.”

“Our presence within the Government of Sharjah’s Pavilion is additional support for us to review our investment opportunities in an integrated manner with other parties. We all share the common goal of promoting the Emirate of Sharjah and its investment potential in order to attract foreign investors to do business in the emirate,” he added.

As a public service department, Sharjah City Municipality’s participation in the event reflects its keenness to provide distinguished and comprehensive services that can ensure the satisfaction and happiness of all its customers.

Out of this perspective, the municipality showcased a number of advanced technologies, including the Building Completion App; the Digital Innovation Platform; the Digital Volunteering Platform; and the Digital Services Platform.

H.E. Thabit Salim Al Turaifi, Director General of Sharjah Municipality, said that the emirate has achieved qualitative leaps in the field of digital transformation in accordance with the vision and directives of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohamed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, to enhance the emirate’s competitiveness on the global scene.

The Director-General of Sharjah Municipality pointed out that the Municipality is taking steady steps towards ensuring the comprehensive digital transformation of all the services it provides.

He added that the Municipality participates in GITEX Technology Week every year through the pavilion of the Sharjah Government with the objective to provide its latest smart services that highlight its leading role in this field.

H.E. Abdullah Ali Al Qaidi, Assistant Director-General of the Municipality’s Corporate Support Sector, explained that the Sharjah Municipality has presented several smart projects of interest to a large segment of customers in various fields, such as the Building Completion App.

“The app provides a simplified summary of the necessary procedures for construction of private housing, starting from the selection of contractors and consultants and building design, including the issuance of building permits, going all the way down to  building completion and getting the completion certificate.”

He pointed out that the Municipality also launched the service of issuing hotel e-messages. This service enables the issuance of letters to the Economic Development Department to develop the mechanism of work and keep pace with the rapid developments at the workplace, while upgrading the level of electronic services provided to the public, improving quality and streamlining procedures.

The Department of Municipalities and Agriculture Affairs will launch a device for the manufacture of sustainable agricultural soil. The device uses aluminium residues and charcoal; it’s specially designed to address the shortage the local soil suffers in terms of mineral and agricultural characteristics. This requires increasing its fertility with chemical fertilizers by taking advantage of the aluminium residues from which factories don't benefit due to their environmental hazards, and negative consequences.

The device works through three stations, according to the mechanical pneumatic system. The task of the first station is to filter the soil of stones and useless objects through an automatic filter run by the engine. Then sand descends  smoothly to the second station; the mechanical pneumatic system can carry about eight kilograms of sand while pumping water through a mechanical pump, the task of which is to purify sand of other salts and minerals.

H.E. Salim Bin Mohammed Al Naqbi, Head of the Department of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture, said that the technological developments and initiatives showcased at the Sharjah Government’s Pavilion are customer-centric.

“We are embracing digital transformation to ensure the quality of life and achieve prosperity for future generations in line with the visionary vision His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohamed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, to enhance the status of the emirate at the global stage,” he said.

Within this context, the Central Finance Department in Sharjah launched the Smile-To-Pay, a new digital payment system based on the facial recognition technology where customers can make a purchase simply by posing in front of point-of-sale machines equipped with cameras, after linking an image of their face to a digital payment system . A 3D camera located at the point-of-sale scans the customer’s face to verify their identity, and ensures the level of safety provided by the Department’s Smart Receipt System "Tahseel", which includes payment through the services of "Samsung Pay" and "Apple Pay", in addition to the availability of contactless payment NFC. It also includes the possibility of payment through instant chat, which is available in the smart application (Chat Pot).

Tahseel is among the best smart electronic financial systems that facilitate the payment of fees using an innovative, safe and hassle-free method, which is available round the clock for Sharjah government entities and users. It not only reduces the risk of using cash, but also offers several benefits for optimal use of modern electronic payment technologies.

The Central Finance Department  is therefore the first government entity to employ Artificial Intelligence as an innovative means of communication within its financial system.

The department also launched “Ask Takamol”, an innovative digital process to streamline efficient communications between the users of the Government Financial System ‘Takamol’ and SFD officials.

SFD also launched the Digital Ticketing System to be used as part of Tahseel. Through the new technique, customers can book tickets to visit Sharjah’s multiple tourist attractions on a daily, monthly or annual basis. The digital tickets can also be used to attend edutainment activities hosted by the emirate around the year as well as visit multiple destinations by one unified ticket, which can be purchased individually or in groups and can be dedicated as gifts as well.

The Sharjah Roads & Transport Authority launched its main smartphone app which features advanced electronic services as part of the RTA’s comprehensive digital transformation strategy aimed at optimizing performance and streamlining public services and transactions.

For its part, the Sharjah Economic Development Department launched its Interactive Chat System, which includes provision of services rendered to investors and all types of customers. Utilizing AI to embed learning functions into computers without prior programming per case, the system serves as an interactive platform that displays all the news, services and new procedures in the field of business.

The Department also introduced its Automated Notary Services for the business sector which have already been approved. This includes, for instance, establishment contracts/ sales contracts / service agent contracts and many other contracts under the classification of the business sector.

The SEDD also launched a set of digital services performed by the system in an AI-powered mechanism, which makes it easier for dealers (investors) to complete their tasks quickly and accurately without the need to go to SEDD in person or visit any service offices.

The Sharjah Real Estate Registration Department launched its official website which features the Department's data and electronic services. The Department’s smart app has also been unveiled.

In the meantime time, and as part of GITEX’s activities hosted by the Sharjah Government Pavilion, H.E. Engineer Khalifa Musabbeh Al Tunaiji, Chairman of Sharjah Housing Department, H.E. Colonel Sami Khamis Al Naqbi, Director of Sharjah Civil Defense, and H.E. Abdulaziz Hamad Omran Taryam General Manager of  Northern Emirates at Etisalat signed an agreement to deploy fire alarm transmission equipment in the emirate to be connected with the control rooms of Etisalat and Civil Defense as part of  "Hsantak" (Arabic for Ensuring your Safety), an integrated fire alarm system for smart monitoring, warning and control of emergency situations.

The AED 75 million initiative covers the housing units built by the Government of Sharjah over the past years, numbered approximately 10,000. It comes in line with the directives of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohamed Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, and in implementation of the emirate’s strategy to strengthen the protective and preventive measures across Sharjah, and improve the services provided.

H.E. Engineer Khalifa Musabbeh Al Tunaiji stressed that the agreement comes as part of the efforts of the Department of Housing to translate the vision of the Government of Sharjah towards the strengthening of safety measures and public protection across the emirate according to the best international standards.

He pointed out that the agreement is in harmony with the objectives of the Government Accelerators in terms of ensuring rapid response in time of emergencies. 

He called on the public to apply for the installation of the fire alarm system, noting that receiving of applications has already started across Etisalat’s offices in the emirate.

His Excellency Colonel Sami Al Naqbi noted the importance of installing the system which, he said, has been approved by the Civil Defence Department's technical teams in association with the Department's partners.

”One of the most important features provided by the system is the possibility of linking it with the Department's operating rooms, to ensure the achievement of the main objective behind its deployment," he said.

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© Press Release 2019