The Federal Government alone, in order to achieve this ambitious plan, is spending Dhs150 million to automate 38 items of services, in addition to the separate budget of each ministry and emirate, Deputy Director General for Information sector and eGovernment, Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) Salem Khamis AI Shair AI Suwaidi, said.
Speaking at a press conference to announce the UAE’s e-Government Plan 2012-2014, Al Suwaidi said that the country has made an incredible leap to the 28th position in the UN e-Government Survey 2012 from 49th in the 2010 version of the survey.
The UAE is ranked the first in the GCC region and the Arab world and 5th in Asia.
The press conference was held at the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority Building in Al Mamzar on Monday.
“Because of this great achievement made in a very short time, the UAE is named among the “emerging global leaders,” he said. “With double the population and three quarters of the GDP per capita, the UAE has achieved around the same level of online services as those offered in Norway, a global leader at the 8th position,” Al Suwaidi quoted the UN report as saying.
The UAE is ranked 7th globally jumping 92 positions, in the “whole of e-Government” concept while offering government services across the country through the national portal. The report also recognised the UAE way in offering government services through its portal, he added.
Unveiling the major initiatives and projects it will launch in the year 2012, he said that the initiatives and projects are part of the Federal eGovernment Strategy 2012-2014 which chart out the course of action for Emirates eGovernment over the years 2012 to 2014.
The UAE Cabinet emphasised that the shift to eServices would further boost the UAE’s socio-economic level and directed all ministries and federal institutions to provide comprehensive eServices to the public within two years.
AI Suwaidi said, “By implementing these initiatives we aim to contribute towards achieving the UAE Vision 2021 which drives the UAE to be one of the best countries in the world and the UAE Government Strategy 2011-2013 that aims at putting citizens first and developing an accountable and innovative government.
“The ultimate objective of Emirates eGovernment is to provide the government services through innovative channels in a time and cost-effective manner through the Internet, fixed and mobile phones and kiosks besides the traditional service centres,” he added.
The initiatives include: the interactive and collaborative electronic encyclopaedia of the UAE (UAEPedia), the UAE eGovernment Award, the computing cloud of the UAE government and the Open Government Programme.
Successful implementation of the Federal eGovernment Strategy 2012-2014 will help in improving the UAE’s global competitiveness and enhancing the UAE’s eTransformation as displayed in the recently released biennial UN eGovernment Survey 2012. As part of the strategy, all services including the issue of a comprehensive National ID card will be done during this period.
The comprehensive electronic encyclopaedia of the UAE (UAEPedia) that carries the history, culture, traditions, dialects and words, is expected to come out by April this year. “We have 204 nationalities residing in the country and so we want to preserve the UAE flavour through this effort,” Al Suwaidi commented on the encyclopaedia.
The encyclopaedia will initially use the Arabic language and later switch to English.
On cloud computing, he said that it would include as much as possible federal and local government issues so that each emirate can get help in proper utilisation of their budgets.
The UAE is one among 14 countries worldwide that offers chat rooms and IM Feature on their portals.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Mohan Vadayar
Quelle/Source: The Gulf Today, 27.03.2012
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