Dubai eGovernment has announced that it will highlight its pioneering mobile portal which provides people quick and convenient access to government and private services, at the Third Middle East Mobility and Wireless Broadband Summit to be held at Dubai’s Emirates Towers Hotel on December 13 and 14, 2005.
Rehab Lootah, Senior Business Manager of Dubai eGovernment will deliver the keynote address on ‘Dubai eGovernment Mobile Portal’ at the two-day annual event that will bring the region’s top executives and operators together to discuss new trends, initiatives and challenges facing the Middle East’s mobile and wireless industry. The summit is being organised by Arabcom Group in association with Dubai eGovernment, Dubai Internet City and the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI).
Lootah said, “Given the increasing number of GSM and GPRS subscribers and the growth in Smartphones and PDA owners among the UAE’s population, the Dubai eGovernment Mobile Portal has emerged as a convenient and effective new channel for those on the move, to quickly access government services through their mobile phones.”
The mobile portal, launched in September this year under the initiative of Dubai Crown Prince and UAE Defence Minister General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is the first such e-service to be launched in the Middle East. It can be accessed from different mobile devices having GSM/GPRS or Wi-Fi connectivity.
The portal provides 15 services by government, semi-government and private sectors organisations including traffic services, Islamic services, financial services, travel bookings, entertainment and general information about Dubai. Visa information from Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department (DNRD), prayer timings from Awqaf and traffic fine enquiries and payments to Dubai Police can also be accessed through this electronic channel.
“The mobile portal, www.dubai.ae, highlights Dubai eGovernment’s commitment to ensuring an efficient administration that is responsive to its people’s needs. It also underlines our drive to deploy the latest technology to achieve a virtual government by providing high-quality customer focused eServices for individuals, businesses and government departments,” Lootah added.
“Offering eServices through mobile phones allows a large section of the population to avail of these services with a high level of security and privacy,” she pointed out. In its march towards a digital economy, Dubai eGovernment has e-enabled 81 per cent of its services, which are in varying stages of completion.
The international panel of speakers at the forthcoming summit will address issues such as mobility, WIMAX, WIFI, IPTV, Wireline, RFID, VoIP, ADSL2+, Triple Play, Smartphone solutions, security and challenges facing the industry. These topics will be debated through interactive panel discussions, case studies on successful implementation and open sessions, daily from 9 am till 6 pm.
The summit is expected to attract over 500 participants from the region and is the Middle East’s only event where governments and private sector will gather and network with international and regional solutions providers, suppliers, manufacturers, vendors, distributors, resellers and end-users to discuss handheld mobility at a decision-making level.
Dubai eGovernment is a pioneering initiative in the region to provide online services across the spectrum of corporate and community life in the emirate. It also has a vision to integrate individually automated government departments under the single umbrella of the eGovernment initiative, thus empowering employees across lines of businesses and levels of government, besides facilitating the lives of citizens and customers of the government. Dubai has taken a lead in the region in deploying eGovernment applications and is among the first few governments in the world to provide such integrated services to its citizens. The eGovernment portal (www.dubai.ae) is a single contact point masking the complexity of the bureaucratic procedures, and guiding access to all services in the easiest possible way. In addition, the eGovernment initiative seeks to improve and enhance procedures by maximising the benefit from technology, so that users from all walks of life will be able to utilize the portal for their specific needs with considerable ease.
