Dubai eGovernment has announced that representatives from the General Committee for Documentation and Telecommunications in Libya have visited Dubai to study various elements of the eGovernment initiative in the emirate. The committee was keen to gain first hand information about the experience of Arab countries who have adopted eGovernance.
The Libyan delegation also met several companies working closely with Dubai eGovernment, including its customers and suppliers, in order to derive a complete picture of the eGovernment initiative.
Highlighting the history and success of Dubai eGovernment to the visiting Libyan team, Salem Al Shair, eServices Director, Dubai eGovernment, said, “Most government departments in Dubai have been using information technology since the 1980’s, which made the task of adopting electronic services much more easier. In 2000, Dubai eGovernment was launched under the patronage and guidance of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Defense Minister, with the main goal of introducing eServices to benefit the residents and corporate sector of Dubai.”
“Dubai eGovernment serves as a link between the various government departments in the emirate and integrates these individually automated departments under the single umbrella of the eGovernment initiative. We are focused on implementing IT solutions that are not too sophisticated, but address all our requirements in the most efficient way. Further, Dubai eGovernment is committed to offer customised solutions to cater to diverse requirements of its users.”
Dubai eGovernment regularly conducts training for its employees to ensure high degree of service efficiency and to stay abreast with latest technologies. It also outsources certain processes that would be expensive to develop internally, thus ensuring optimum utilisation of resources.
During their visit, the Libyan delegation explored the hurdles, challenges and achievements of Dubai eGovernment to fully comprehend the various factors that go behind the success of an initiative such as this in the Arab world.
“We were pleased to offer detailed explanations to the representatives from Libya, who chose to study the eGovernment program in Dubai as we have one of the most successful eService initiatives in the region. We will continue our strong focus to include newer, more innovative electronic services to further simplify processes that come within the purview of the government departments, and in the process benefit the users,” concluded Al Shair.
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 integrate
individually 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 (www.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.
