IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Loads of smartphone apps or online facilities are here to make life easier for you. You can book a taxi, direct emergency workers, check Metro timings, pay utility bills, check medical fitness test requirements, start a business or pay traffic fines or parking fees from your phone or tablet. Dubai has recently launched an “m-government” initiative to make more public services available on smartphones. That’s in addition to the 2,000 e-government services on the web. We’ve listed some of the most important e-government or m-government apps that could make help make many of those drab, time-consuming procedures a breeze. Happy apping.

The fourth Ramadan Majlis, organised by Sharjah Media Centre (SMC), continued on June 23 with a session entitled “The Requirements of Transformation to Smart Government under Technological Dominance” and discussed issues related to the UAE government’s vision to provide 24-hour services to the public.

The session was attended by Sheikh Sultan Bin Ahmed Al Qasimi, Chairman of SMC, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Ahmed Al Qasimi, Director General of the Office of the Chairman of Sharjah Oil Council, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Humaid Al Qasimi, Director of the Sharjah Department of Statistics and Community Development; Dr Khalid Omar Al Midfa, Director General of Sharjah Media Corporation and Osama Samra, Director of SMC, as well as senior officials from the public and private sectors, representatives of the diplomatic corps in the UAE, intellectuals and media figures.

The Department of e-Government of the Government of Sharjah is undertaking a number of initiatives to inculcate a spirit of innovation and love of technology in students in the Emirate from an early age, encouraging them to choose Information Technology and programming as a major and as a future career.

The Department of e-Government (Ded) has been conducting an exciting interactive workshop for school students at the ongoing UAE Innovation Month in Sharjah celebrations being held from Feb.15 to 21 at Al Majaz Waterfront and Sharjah Centre for Astronomy and Space Sciences in the University City.

A new self-service technology concept is being considered by the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) to enable users to access health information at any time, place or platform.

Under this umbrella concept, various e-services will revolve around the user as demonstrated during the recent GITEX Technology Week during which the authority presented an array of technologies. One aspect of e-services is the mHealth mobile service which allows users to view their lab results, manage appointments, and keep track of prescriptions and children’s vaccination schedules among others.

The UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has announced the completion of the upgradation of the Federal Network (FEDNet) security systems.

This is a step aimed at protecting more than 35 federal entities against Advanced Persistent Threats in their various forms, whether through e-mail or internet browsing.

The smartapp will alert road users so they can find alternative routes…

Dubai Police have launched a new feature on their smartphone app, which will alert road users when there has been a serious accident or there are temporary road closures.

The 2014 United Nations e-Government Survey, which was released in the month of June, provides a bird’s eye view of e-Government practices around the world. While the survey notes significant improvements in several countries in their march towards smart governance, it also reflects the increasingly disparate state of affairs in the comity of nations concerning the levels of services provided to the people by their respective governments.

Communication plays a very important role in the proper functioning of a society. Honest, open and two-way communication between the public and Government is always necessary to provide the public a sense of relief; that they are in safe hands.

Recent developments in technology has led to the emergence of better and more refined ways of communication which the Government can use to facilitate the communication process. Internet is one of the ways the Government has adopted to provide several services and communicate with people. This use of ICT by the Government to provide information and public services is termed as e-Government.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has been awarded with the 21st Middle East Smart Government and Smart Cities Excellence Award under the smart e-services category, for its successful implementation of the UAE Government’s FEDnet project. The award was given by Middle East Excellence Awards Institute.

Abdelnasir Rahma Obaid Al Shamsi, Senior Manager for Infrastructure Management in E-Government Operations Department at TRA, received the award in behalf of the TRA during the awards ceremony, which was held at the Ritz-Carlton, Dubai International Financial Centre, in the presence of top-level government officials from the region and industry leaders. The recognition event was held on the sidelines of the 22nd GCC Smart Governments and Smart Cities Conference.

The event — held once every four years — will take place in the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre, Dubai World Trade Centre from March 30 to April 10.

As part of its role to implement the UAE’s e-transformation strategy at Federal level, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has announced the launch of a brand new e-portal to automatically assess the quality of the UAE Federal entities websites.

The new system enables government entities to perform a self-assessment of their websites at any given time and get a detailed report about their level of compliance to the set standards. The new system helps federal entities to set and implement new development plans to improve their e-presence and achieve the highest quality levels.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has launched a campaign to develop the content of the official portal of the UAE Government (Government.ae), inivited all sections of the public, government entities and private sector establishments to share information that is missing from the portal and provide official references and sources of such information. TRA welcomes anyone to report any wrong information, grammatical or spelling mistakes.

People are requested to report their feedback through a survey, for which a link is published via social media and sent out to anyone whose e-mail address is in the TRA’s databases. TRA is using the 'Participate and get a reward' hashtag for the campaign.

Salem Khamis Al Shair Al Suwaidi, Deputy Director General for Information and eGovernment Sector, TRA, said the programme, launched in collaboration with the Arab Media Network, will officially air in January 2013.

Zahawi hailed the innovation culture the UAE government is keen on establishing.

The United Kingdom is seeking to grow the number of UK universities in the UAE as well as to learn from the UAE e-government programme model, according to Nadhim Zahawi, Member of Parliament and Minister Responsible for Special Education Needs in UK.

The emirate of Umm Al Quwain will soon have its own e-Government department in an effort to provide innovative online services to the public.

His Highness Shaikh Saud Bin Rashid Al Mualla, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Umm Al Quwain, yesterday issued Law No 5 of 2013 setting up the e-Government department.

The United Nations has singled out the Emirates Identity Authority (Eida) in its e-Government Survey 2014 for its world-class biometric enrolment of the entire population.

The United Nations’ report, which recently came out, includes a special box item in which it describes the Emirates ID’s biometric enrolment programme as “one of the world’s best biometric programmes.”

The UN official said that the United Nation Division for Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM) of the e-Government Economic and Social Affairs seeks to work with Emirates ID and to bolster cooperation between the two sides, hoping that the results of those mutual efforts will have positive impacts on developing the UAE smart government initiative.

The Department of Sharjah eGovernment announced that 36 government departments in the Emirate are to participate in the “GITEX Technology Week 2018” scheduled on October 14-18 at the Dubai World Trade Center.

All departments of Sharjah are geared up to showcase their latest services at the pavilion of Sharjah Government. Innovative technological projects are to be unveiled for the first time at the exhibition which is the largest in ICT sector in MENA and South Asia, and the third largest of its kind worldwide.

ValueFirst, a globally recognized enterprise communication services provider, applauds the UAE's groundbreaking 'Dubai AI' initiative, which sets a high global standard for the future of smart cities through the innovative use of Generative AI technologies.

“The digital era continues to accelerate, and cities like Dubai stand as forerunners in the adoption of groundbreaking technologies that enhance the lives of both residents and visitors. The recent unveiling of 'Dubai AI' at the Dubai Assembly for Generative AI represents a pivotal leap towards a more intelligent and interconnected future. This initiative promises to redefine the way we experience and engage with this dynamic city,” said Arvind Kalla, Chief Regional Officer at ValueFirst.

VERSES AI Inc., a cognitive computing company specializing in next generation intelligent systems, announces the first in a series of joint smart city projects with Analog, an edge computing company focused on seamlessly connecting people, places and things using smart sensors and mixed reality devices, to simulate taxi fleet management in Abu Dhabi. Utilizing Genius, the project objective is to understand how to optimize fleet operations while minimizing congestion and emissions.

“We are excited to kick off this first commercial project and partnership with Analog,” said Gabriel René, CEO of VERSES. “Genius is ideally suited for smart cities where there are many stakeholders, each with different systems, hardware and methods for capturing and processing real-time sensor data. We aim to empower Analog with the tools to transform data from various sources into a unified model upon which Genius agents continuously generate insights and recommendations in order to optimize activity, with the goal of producing significant cost savings and efficiency improvements for fleet operators.”