Leading IT firm to help catapult Dubai into e-government

The Dubai government has announced that it has signed an agreement with a global Information Technology consultant to help transform government services into e-government facilities and to make the system foolproof against hacking.

Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, head of the e-government Task Force, said the agreement had been signed with Electronic Data Systems. It will provide consultation services to the government team and ensure smooth and safe transformation from the present conventional system to a totally electronic one.

Dr Khalifa Mohammed Ahmed, director of the Dubai Ruler's Court, signed the agreement on behalf of the government with Norbert Steiger, Executive Director of Electronic Data Systems, Middle East and Europe.

Sheikha Lubna said Electronic Data Systems will advise the team on the design of electronic portals, electronic button portals and help establish a legal framework that controls electronic transactions.

"The company will help our team redesign more than 14 major services and make them easily accessible to the public. It will set the required technical specifications to establish an integrated system among different government departments," she added.

E-government will provide an integrated secure network to safeguard the system from possible hacking, she said.

"The system will be designed by Electronic Data Systems to ensure total security and confidentiality. The e-government task force was looking to replace long queues of applicants with hassle-free e-government procedures by the end of October 2001, the deadline for completing the transformation," Sheikha Lubna said.

The objective is not only to save Dubai residents time and effort but to promote business in the right direction. "Dubai is striving to position itself as a major technological and economic centre by consolidating all activities in one government portal to act as a gate for e-government."

She said commercial registration in both the Economic Department and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the handling of Municipality applications, electronic bill payments, the issuing of health cards and obtaining certificates will be processed electronically.

Dr Khalifa Mohammed Ahmed said the agreement with Electronic Data Systems was a move to ensure the implementation of e-government which he said was a dream at one time.

"We aim at offering better services for both the private and public sectors. Once e-government is implemented, it will give every member of society easy access to every government section. This will bring about an enormous change in community lifestyle and enable the government to monitor closely business transactions through a single integrated network. Most important, the system will reduce the cost and save valuable time," he said.

Norbert Steiger, Executive Director of Electronic Data Systems, said the Dubai government was working hard to keep pace with the global revolution in Information Technology. "No country has yet implemented a 100 per cent e-government, but there are attempts to establish one here in Dubai.

In his opinion, he said, Dubai has surprised the IT industry by altering its entire conventional office system into electronic government.

"Dubai is well-qualified to be the IT centre in the region and possibly in the world with the technological infrastructure it has now. The issue of electronic awareness is important and, fortunately, Dubai and the UAE business community have gone far ahead in that," Steiger said.