In line with its 'Customer comes first' strategy, Dubai eGovernment Department has announced that it will conduct a presentation of more than 2,000 eServices being offered by 28 government departments during its participation at the 'GITEX Technology Week 2010', which will be held from October 17 to 21 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Dubai eGovernment further revealed that it has upgraded its GITEX website (http://gitex.dubai.ae) to provide information about all the participating government entities and the eServices being provided. The GITEX website will also offer comprehensive coverage about the daily activities of the event, including lectures, press conferences and concluded agreements.
With an eye to accommodate more visitors, Dubai eGovernment also announced that its exhibition space located at Stand D9-10 in Sheikh Rashid Hall will be three times bigger compared to the previous edition. Each participating government entity will be provided ample exhibition space at the Dubai eGovernment stand to showcase their services to citizens, residents, businesses and visitors. Based on its experience in previous editions, Dubai eGovernment has prepared extensively to create a suitable, optimised and more spacious exhibition area for all government departments under a unified platform.
H.E. Ahmed Bin Humaidan, Director General of Dubai eGovernment Department, said: "We are keen to provide an ideal platform for government departments and entities in Dubai to showcase their eServices under the umbrella of Dubai eGovernment. We have prepared a fully equipped exhibition stand with modern amenities such as high-speed internet, computer workstations, huge displays, dedicated areas for lectures and press conferences, and special counters to receive visitors. In this regard, we are thrilled to have gathered 28 government entities to join the exhibition, which underlines our commitment to achieve an integrated platform for these entities to offer eServices in the emirate. Moreover, the upcoming exhibition will certainly provide a great opportunity for different members of society to learn more about these services as well as the ongoing eTransformation of our society. Visitors will be briefed about the role of eServices in improving the lifestyle of citizens, residents, visitors and the business community, particularly in terms of providing a more convenient way to interact and transact with the government without having to go through an arduous process or having to line up in a long queue."
Bin Humaidan added: "Dubai eGovernment will provide a series of presentations to explain its methodology in providing eServices to the public and the government departments, including Direct Public Services; Core & Channel Enabling Services; Government Resources Planning (GRP) Services; Collaboration, Connectivity & Infrastructure Enabling Services; and Policy, Advisory & Knowledge Services. . In addition, we will also provide information about the 'Best Online Customer' raffles as well as the prizes, events and activities that we have prepared for GITEX."
During Gitex, Dubai eGovernment Department will focus on the provision of eServices from the customer's perspective, a vision that facilitates the processing of transactions since it classifies government entities according to customers' requirements and still enables them to avail of the services at any time and any place across different channels such as the Internet, IVR, SMS, and a dedicated Customer Service Centre, among others. For this year, some of the significant achievements of Dubai eGovernment in promoting eServices include an increase in the number of the departments participating in ePay, which has now reached 22 departments. ePay has also processed a total of 835,000 transactions worth AED 1.1 billion from January to end of June 2010 compared to 712,000 transactions worth AED 700 million during the corresponding period last year. The number of direct debit transactions this year reached 23,000 compared with 13,000 in the previous year.
The Department revealed that in the first half of this year a total of 110,000 calls were received by the unified call centre Ask Dubai on number 700040000 for inquiring about services or information related to the electronic services offered by the 16 participating departments. Meanwhile, Dubai eGovernment's SMS gateway service "mDubai" where an SMS is sent to and from the number "4488" saw more than 36 million push messages from the departments to the public and between departments in the first half of this year, at an average of 6 million messages a month. Also, around 90,000 pull messages were received from the public during the same period.
On the other hand, 30 government departments now connected to the Dubai eGovernment GRP (Government Resources Planning) systems which serve more than 68,000 government employees. Moreover, Dubai eGovernment Department has recently completed upgrades to the Government Information Network (GIN) as part of its commitment to facilitate the emirate's eTransformation and develop faster and easier access to its eServices. GIN serves as the cornerstone of the electronic infrastructure connecting government systems that effectively transfers information and handles transactions. The upgrades involved increasing capacity by up to 300 per cent for the main network lines and boosting the information exchange speed by 200 per cent. This plan started with updating the systems in 36 government departments.
Dubai eGovernment is keen to participate actively in GITEX every year based on its commitment to keep pace with the latest developments in the world of technology to serve the eTransformation process in Dubai. In addition to its Gitex dedicated website, the Department has issued a special edition of e4all Magazine, which covers the various events and services to be displayed by the different government departments participating in the exhibition.
