Dubai:
His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, inaugurated the 33 edition of Gitex Technology Week 2013 yesterday.
Shaikh Mohammad toured all exhibition halls while government entities were launching new smart applications to meet the transformation of Dubai into a smart government.
Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, and Shaikh Maktoum Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, attended the opening amid a big gathering of top government officials, technology experts and business professionals.
The first day witnessed a rush of smart applications launches across most of the government departments.
Ahmad Bin Humaidan, Director General of Dubai Smart Government, told Gulf News that this edition will be different in terms of Smartphone applications that the government entities are ready to launch in line with Shaikh Mohammad initiative of shifting into smart government.
He also confirmed that the Dubai Smart Government have the capability and strong infrastructure to achieve this transformation smoothly.
“The new application which will be launched during Gitex will contribute to changing Dubai into an integrated, Knowledge-based city in the 21st century.”
While Shaikh Mohammad was touring the exhibition, Dubai Naturalization and Immigration Department, launched their demo for the latest smart gate which will be implemented by next year.
Major general Mohammad Ahmad Al Merri, Director of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai, said that the department is offering most of its services online.
“Most of our services are available online while we are re-engineering the rest of these applications to be ready for transformation into smart government.”
The five-day event attracts top leaders and decision-makers from some of the largest information and communication technology companies in the world. About 130,000 conference attendees from 150 countries are expected to take part.
