Dubai Government goes online
The Gulf state of Dubai has taken a step into the world of e-government with the launch of a new web portal, the first of its kind in the Arab world.
The initiative is one of many online projects Dubai has undertaken over the past two years, most prominent of which was Dubai Internet City.
The e-government project, representing 24 government departments, aims to provide official online services for citizens and visitors through one site.
It will also be a "government expertise house", which will follow up and monitor as well as educate clients and users on best use of e-government.
Services on one site
The portal pledges that "citizens won't be required to go to different departments to apply for one single service", and that they "will have to be able to get access through different channels, internet, mail, phone and front-desk operators, and through English and Arabic".
UAE Defence Minister Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum said he hoped the project would help officials change to what he called an e-lifestyle, providing them with training and monitoring their progress at the same time.
The head of the e-government executive team, Sheikha Lubna Al Sashimi, said that the team looked to similar global projects but adapted its own approach to cater for Dubai's needs.
At the opening ceremony on Monday, Sheikha Lubna and other members of the e-government team showed how the portal could be used for online transactions regarding health cards and traffic fines.
Dubai e-government portals contains four sections:
Online services: Access to government departments and services, including letting people renew credits cards, pay fines or get driving licences.
Living in Dubai: Allows residents to transact and communicate with government departments and visitors to get information of key organizations and services in Dubai
Visiting Dubai: Updated information on activities in Dubai
Business in Dubai: Offers information on businesses and facilities for traders, investors and companiesArab world online
The Gulf states have one of the highest internet-user ratios in the Arab world.
The number of internet users in the Arab world is expected to double to eight million by the end of 2002, according to computer chip maker Intel.
Although many Arab governments have shown interest in e-government projects, most of the attempts so far have been fragmented.
However, in March last year, Qatar announced that its e-government project would be launched by 2003.
Dubai had been keen to launch the portal on the date set 18 months ago. Gulf newspapers reported that a number of government departments cancelled summer leave for staff in order to finish the project on time.
Executive Summary
In this report, I present the fifth annual update on global e-government. Using a detailed analysis of 1,797 government websites in 198 different nations undertaken during Summer, 2005, I chart the variations that exist across regions and countries, and discuss the pace at which e-government is unfolding around the world.
In looking at electronic government from 2001 to 2005, I find that progress is being made, albeit at an incremental pace. Governments are showing steady progress on several important dimensions, but not major leaps forward. On several key indicators, e-government performance is edging up. However, movement forward has not been more extensive in some areas because budget, bureaucratic, and institutional forces have limited the extent to which the public sector has incorporated technology into their mission.
Among the significant findings of the research are:
1) 19 percent of government websites offer services that are fully executable online.
2) 89 percent of websites this year provide access to publications and 53 percent have links to databases.
3) 18 percent (up from 14 percent in 2004) show privacy policies, while 10 percent have security policies (up from 8 percent in 2004).
4) 19 percent of government websites have some form of disability access, meaning access for persons with disabilities, up from 14 percent in 2004.
5) Countries vary enormously in their overall e-government performance based on our analysis. The most highly ranked nations include Taiwan, Singapore, United States, Hong Kong, China, Canada, Germany, Australia, and Ireland.
6) There are major differences in e-government performance based on region of the world. In general, countries in North America score the highest, followed by Asia, Western Europe, Pacific Ocean Islands, Middle East, Eastern Europe, South America, Russia and Central Asia, Central America, and Africa.
Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif said Egypt is currently preparing for the use of information technology for restructuring subsidy, controlling markets and providing services for citizens.Inaugurating the proceedings of the preparatory Arab conference for information technology summit, Nazif said Egypt is currently accelerating pace for transferring to the e-government through restructuring the state machinery and facilitating electronic dealings in order to develop economic performance.Nazif said there are many national initiatives which aim at developing knowledge community and establishing a developed industry as a basis for setting up a regional Arab and African industry contributing to attracting world investments and providing new working opportunities for youth.He indicated that the development of human resources would remain a pressing demand in an environment which is highly changing. In this environment, Nazif said, enough support would be devoted for training, education, invention and science.The Prime Minister expressed Egypt's willingness to offer all possible support for Tunisia in order to render successful the second phase of the world summit of information technology, due in Tunisia on November 16-18.Meantime, Tarek Kamel, the Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology, said the aim of the conference is to coordinate Arab and African stances in preparation for the World Summit of Information Technology.He said Arab delegations world meet for drafting an Arab work plan that would be endorsed by the Arab ministers of telecommunications.Arab League Secretary General, Amr Moussa, said, in a statement read out on his behalf by Abdel Rahman Al-Sahibany the assistant secretary general of the Arab League, that Arab countries must interact with the information community in order to bridge the gap with the states of the north.Dr. Montasser Wayly, the Tunisia minister of telecommunications technology, said Tunisia was preparing for the conference trough consulting different parties in order to bridge the digital divide in the region and to internet websites in a fair manner among peoples.
