Dubai eGovernment’s stand receives over 7,000 visitors during GITEX and expects number of participating entities to rise by 16% next year

Dubai eGovernment’s stand saw a large turnout during the 32^nd edition of GITEX Technology Week held between October 14 and 18, 2012. The 2,700-square meter stand, which was ideal to accommodate the 26 government entities and contribute to raising public awareness about eServices, attracted over 7,000 visitors.

H.E. Ahmad Bin Humaidan, Director General of Dubai eGovernment Department, said: “Gitex 2012 has provided the audience with a single platform to explore the latest eServices and mobile applications offered by Dubai eGovernment and government departments and entities under one roof. This will certainly boost the demand for such type of services from citizens, residents, visitors and businesses.”

As part of its participation in this year’s edition of GITEX, Dubai eGovernment focused on the launch of two new mobile applications on iPhones for conducting online payment services directly through mobile phones and accessing all the services provided by Dubai Government, while allowing an ideal opportunity for all segments of society to be familiar with eTransformation in line with its commitment to fulfill the vision of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, of reaffirming Dubai’s leading position as a knowledge-based economy. In addition, Dubai eGovernment’s stand received many Arab delegations and eTransformation specialists and its staff gave detailed explanations about the new applications to the visitors.

Bin Humaidan noted that the success of Dubai eGovernment’s stand in attracting increasing numbers of visitors year after year will motivate more government entities to join it. By virtue of the stand’s success this year, the number of participating government entities is expected to rise by 16 per cent next year.”

He said: “By the end of our successful participation in this year’s edition of GITEX Technology Week, I would like to thank all the participating government entities and their working teams as well as the visitors of DeG stand including official delegations, businesses and social sectors in appreciation of their high confidence and continuous support year after year.  We would like also to value the concerted efforts of the organizing committee for its efforts in making a success of this IT event and look forward to carrying on the journey of excellence and success at the level of government integration and connectivity to ease the lives of people in Dubai.”

GITEX saw the signing of 10 MoUs including 8 among the participating entities on the stand and 2 as part of Dubai eGovernment’s bid to expand the scope of online payment, under which the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) and Dubai Financial Market (DFM) joined the ePay - DeG’s electronic payment gateway. This step brings to 27 the number of government entities using ePay and will help consolidate the portfolio of over 250 eServices approved for online payment with the aim of providing more convenient options to individual and corporate customers for real-time payment of government fees. Meanwhile, the number of users registered in the mobile payment gateway mPay totaled 19,045 by the end of Gitex Technology Week 2012.

Dubai eGovernment joined hands with four other government entities to promote the 'Best Online Customer' campaign held under the slogan of “Pay & Win”. The campaign saw 57 people winning several valuable prizes including smart phones, tablet computers and TVs. Besides, Dubai eGovernment launched 16 customer satisfaction surveys, 11 of which were oriented to the government sector and saw the participation of over 2,500 employees, and 5 to the public and saw the participation of 1,382 individuals. The surveys covered the official portal of Dubai Government, dubai.ae, and DeG’s services. Raffle draws were held for these surveys for which 6 iPads and 3 iPhones were distributed to the winners, while other prizes were distributed to 33 winners in other DeG competitions.

As for promoting the event on social networking, Dubai eGovernment sent about 50 tweets together with over 100,000 SMS messages in English and 42,000 in Arabic to the public and over 64,000 SMS messages to the government sector employees. Some 48 lectures on eServices, including 12 on DeG’s eServices were organized during the days of the exhibition, in which 5 press conferences were held.