Dubai: Federal government officials welcomed a reminder on Wednesday by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to ensure Smart Government services are in place by the end of next month.

Shaikh Mohammad said on his twitter account that the deadline for reviewing results on the implementation of the smart government was fast approaching.

Posting the picture of a previous tweet when he announced the Smart Government initiative, he said: “This is a picture of a tweet from two years ago. I would just like to remind government officials that in a month, we will be reviewing results of their work in achieving this goal.”

The tweet in the picture posted by Shaikh Mohammad reads: “We have given government officials a period of two years for the implementation of the smart government project. We have also promised that we will organise a farewell ceremony for government officials who do not achieve this goal.”

Shaikh Mohammad launched the Smart Government initiative in May 2013, calling on all government departments to make all their services available through smart platforms. The government departments have until the end of May 2015 to complete the process.

Major General Mohammad Ahmad Al Merri, Director of General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs-Dubai (GDRFA), said on Wednesday that “all of the department’s services will be available as ‘smart services’ within the next few months.”

Al Merri noted that 85 percent of the GDRFA’s services are already accessible through electronic mediums and 55 percent as smart services.

“Most of our services are already accessible via smartphones,” he said, “The GDRFA app is available for download via the Apple Store or Android ’s Google Play.”

“As Shaikh Mohammad said ‘innovation is a daily essential in government work,’” said Al Merri. “In the last few years we have ardently worked to make all our services easily available to the public. We already see a tremendous amount of people using our smart app. It saves our customers, both employees and sponsors, the time and hassle of going to one of our branches. Through our smart apps, all our services are available at our customers’ fingertips.”

Major General Ali Abdullah bin Alwan, Commander inchief of Ras Al Khaimah Police, told Gulf News that “the Ministry of Interior is included in the change to smart government and we can see it clearly in police departments as a number of the services change to electronic ones. In the future we will include other services to change to electronic.”

Saeed Mohammad Al Tayer, Managing Director and CEO of Dewa, said in an earlier report: “The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority completed the smart transformation of all its services in less than a year after the launch of Smart Dubai initiative, which helps to achieve the directives of HH Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai to launch the post e-Government phase, called Smart Government, which will significantly advance customer services and transform Dubai into the smartest city in the world with all the services and utilities run by integrated and connected smart systems, support sustainable development in Dubai and the National Agenda launched by His Highness, and raise the profile of Dubai as a global hub for trade, finance, tourism, green economy and sustainability.”

The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) is on track in implementing smart health care in line with the directives of Shaikh Mohammad to introduce smart government services.

Eisa Al Maidour, DHA director general, said earlier that Dubai is making great strides towards transforming its services to smart government services. He said DHA is working towards comprehensive smart solutions in the healthcare field from management, lab work, digital archiving..

As part of the Smart Government initiative, more than 2,000 government services are set to be available through mobile and electronic mediums, most of which has already been achieved.

A dedicated department was established by Shaikh Mohammad to supervise and facilitate the Dubai Government into a smart government.

Several important initiatives have been launched as part of the programme, including MyID, which allows a single ID access for customers to all Dubai Government smart services across different departments.

Among the other services are the development of ePay and mPay gateways, opening up the eComplaint channels for citizens and residents.

As part of the same initiative, Shaikh Mohammad also launched the happiness meter recently, which was activated earlier this month in 14 government departments.