Dubai Municipality has announced the successful attainment of a key milestone in online service delivery with 90 percent of all services now available online, a full year in advance of the schedule laid out by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The announcement, made at a press conference yesterday (Wednesday, November 8, 2006), cements Dubai’s standing as a leading eServices hub in the Middle East.
Dubai eGovernment lauded Dubai Municipality’s efforts and outstanding results, noting that the achievement brings Dubai Municipality on par with other leading municipalities worldwide. Prior to the announcement, a Dubai eGovernment team inspected all 518 Dubai Municipality online services, finding them to be of international standard.
Hussein Lootah, Acting Director General, Dubai Municipality, said, “We have been working diligently for the past several months to e-enable as many of our services as possible, and it is gratifying that we were able to achieve our target of 90 per cent eServices well ahead of schedule. The task had proved particularly challenging because of the sheer volume and diversity of client services we offer, and our synergy with Dubai eGovernment played a central role in ensuring the project’s success. We thank Dubai eGovernment for their constant support and cooperation throughout the process.”
“E-governance should be considered a key goal for all government service departments as it rids processes of needless bureaucracy and adds value to customer experience,” he added.
Salem Al Shair, eServices Director, Dubai eGovernment said, “We commend Dubai Municipality on its e-services achievements. The Dubai Municipality is a leader in many fields and we are not surprised that they have reached their targets ahead of schedule. The next year is a critical phase for other government departments to meet online service delivery targets.”
Among the host of e-services that Dubai Municipality offers, the most commonly used are the DM Clinic Health Certificates, the No Objection Certification, Food Control Health Certificates and Dubai Central Labs (DCL)-Block Certificates. The Clinic Health Certificates service primarily serves companies in Dubai that apply for occupational health cards and medical certificates, and allows companies track the status of their applications or amend applications if required. The DCL certification service allows customers to apply for block certificates over the internet, check status and amend applications online, whereas the NOC service provides contractors, consultants and service agents within Dubai with the facility to submit online requests for NOCs.
Dubai Municipality’s e-services have been generating excellent response, with a total of over two million transactions carried out till date. Further information on the services can be found www.dm.gov.ae.
Dubai eGovernment is a pioneering initiative in the region to provide online services across the spectrum of corporate and community life in the emirate. It also has a vision to integrateindividually automated government departments under the single umbrella of the eGovernment initiative, thus empowering employees across lines of businesses and levels of government, besides facilitating the lives of citizens and customers of the government. Dubai has taken a lead in the region in deploying eGovernment applications and is among the first few governments in the world to provide such integrated services to its citizens. The eGovernment portal (http://mobile.dubai.ae) is a single contact point masking the complexity of the bureaucratic procedures, and guiding access to all services in the easiest possible way. In addition, the eGovernment initiative seeks to improve and enhance procedures by maximizing the benefit from technology, so that users from all walks of life will be able to utilize the portal for their specific needs with considerable ease.
