TRA to hold a workshop on “Technology Trends and Government Competitiveness” with experts from the UN and Gartner

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) will hold a workshop on “Technology Trends and Government Competitiveness”. The workshop will be held on September 13, 2012 at the TRA building in Dubai.

The workshop aims to educate government entities on the upcoming trends and challenges in the fields of location-based technology and social media and their relevance to electronic government. Director Generals, Chief Information Officers and Information Technology managers from federal entities will be attending the workshop.

Jeff Vining, Research VP at Gartner Inc. will address the delegates and answer their queries on two topics; “The Future of location-based technology and smart government” and “The future of social media and government.” Mr. Richard Kerby, Senior Inter-Regional Advisor, Division for Public Administration and Development Management at United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs will give an overview of the upcoming UN eGovernment Survey 2014.

Stressing the importance of the workshop, H. E. Salem Khamis Al Shair Al Suwaidi, Deputy Director General, TRA – Information and eGovernment Sector, said, “There is a challenge with every opportunity that technology offers. As technology advances, so do the challenges. In this workshop, we aim to create awareness on the same and share the knowhow on how to tackle them. I would like to call upon the UAE government entities to participate and benefit from this workshop.”

According to research agency TNS’s annual report ‘Mobile Life study’, released in early 2012, location-based service (LBS) was the mobile feature set to grow the most. The survey showed that globally more than 60 per cent of mobile users that are not currently using LBS want to start using them and in the UAE, the figure stood at 79 per cent.

The UAE has made an impressive jump of 21 ranks in the UN eGovernment Survey 2012. The UAE is ranked at 28 as against 49 in the 2010 report. The UAE has achieved impressive results in the sub-indexes of the survey. On Online Service Index, the UAE jumped from rank 99 in the 2010 Report to rank 7 in 2012. On e-Participation Index, the UAE advanced 80 ranks; the UAE jumped from rank 86 in the 2010 Report to the rank 6 in 2012.