IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Dubai Municipality has announced that its recently commenced ‘Online Week’ initiative - where each division of the Municipality will close its counter for manual processing of transactions for one week – is progressing as expected. The initiative, which runs from September 23 to December 13, 2007, has so far seen the Environment Department and the Public Health Department of the Municipality carry out only online transactions with its clients for one week, and the results have been highly encouraging. Around 3,500,000 online transactions were done during the first three weeks of ‘Online Week”.

The aim of ‘Online Week’ is to encourage users to switch to online services, and to highlight the progress made by the Municipality in moving to online services so far. According to the Municipality, 94 per cent of services are now available online, with all services set to be moved online by the end of 2007. The Dubai Municipality website provides access to some 520 services, including engineering, central laboratory services, food import and export and surveying.

Engineer Hussein Nasir Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality, said, “We are overwhelmed by the response to the ‘Online Week’, and the extensive adoption of our online services by our clients during this period underlines the success of the initiative and drives us to achieve 100 per cent provision of our services electronically in the shortest possible time. Since the launch of the eGovernment programme in 2001, Dubai Municipality has processed more than 3.5 million transactions online, at an average of about 90,000 transactions per month, and with initiatives such as ‘Online Week’, we expect a significant boost in these figures in the near future.”

Salem Al Shair, eServices Director, Dubai eGovernment, said, “The success of ‘Online Week’ thus far reaffirms our belief that we would be able to achieve all our major electronic governance objectives ahead of schedule. Dubai Municipality has led by example when it comes to offering its services online, and their efforts have ensured that an increasing number of its clients are now keen on carrying out their transactions online, enjoying significant savings of time and effort.”

After the success of the ‘Online Week’ for Dubai Municipality’s Environment Department and the Public Health Department, the focus now shifts to the Drainage & Irrigation Department’s ‘Online Week’ from October 21-25; for the Planning & Surveying Department from November 4-8; for the Building Studies & Pre-qualification Section of the Building Department from November 18-22; and the final ‘Online Week’ which will be observed by the Building Permits Section of the Building Department from December 9-13.

Quelle/Source: Al-Bawaba, 20.10.2007