The United Arab Emirates' Ministry of Finance and Industry (MoFI) has officially launched phase one of its 'e-Portal'. The initial phase establishes an e-government single-entry portal, presents high-level introductory content, and provides links to participating ministries and related portals. According to Dr Mohamed Emir Mavani, e-Government Project Director at MOFI, the launch of the e-Portal is a vital step towards implementing the overall federal e-government project, establishing a performance-driven public policy and service delivery environment.
According to Dr Mavani, the new portal will increase coordination and integration among ministries and government agencies. It will also enhance individual and cross-departmental collaboration, improve public interaction and involvement, and provide centralised content management for all government ministries and entities with decentralised e-Services.
The main page of the portal has been designed both in Arabic and English. It will be a friendly government interface with businesses and individuals.
"Enhancing the information content, developing content specific to high-frequency services, and introducing access to limited online services are the projected milestones of the second phase," said Maha Al Aidarous, Deputy Director of Information Systems Department at MoFI and e-Portal Project Manager.
The third phase of implementation will integrate the workflows of individual government agencies with the frontend service delivery mechanisms of the portal.
The fourth phase will be a transition to transactional services where transaction tracking for existing services will be introduced, user feedback will be solicited, and traffic and visitor patterns will be reviewed for input into the next phase.
When the fifth phase of the portal is complete, government administrators will be able to personalise content and alerts to address specific end-user requirements.
Quelle: Public Sector Technology & Management, 15.03.2005
