Dubai civic portal gets good response

Dubai Municipality has carried out 14,600 online transactions since last November, after the launch of e-Services along with a new Dubai Municipality portal (www.dm.gov.ae).

"On an average, 1,000 transactions were undertaken every week during the last 10 months," said Eng. Hussein Nasser Lootah, Assistant Director General for Environment and Public Health Affairs and Head of the e-Government Committee at Dubai Municipality.

He said the most used among the present 47 e-Services was the Food Control Health Certificates service, in which an average 60 transactions were made every day.

Lootah said so far 374 companies have applied for registration in order to access the civic body's e-Services.

"These statistics reflect the importance the public has been attaching to the e-Services launched by the municipality. We expect this number to increase after the completion of the municipality's training programme for customers to help to use the e-Services through the Dubai Municipality portal," said Lootah.

He said that Dubai Municipality launches e-Services in phases considering the importance of each service and the expansion of the database of users.

"The second phase of the e-Services project will start later this year with the launch of a host of new services. We launch each project after conducting comprehensive studies and planning in order to ascertain the needs of the customers," said Lootah.

"We don't launch any service without ensuring its effectiveness, capacity and necessity, and studying the customers' requirements. No service is launched just for the sake of increasing the number of services. That is the secret behind launching a set of services at one stretch," said Lootah.

He said that Dubai Municipality has initiated the e-Government project under the directives of General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Defence Minister.

Lootah said the Dubai Municipality portal receives more than 1,000 online requests every week on the services provided by the civic body.

"The number of requests are also expected to increase after more customers start accessing the Dubai Municipality portal," he said.

Five types of certificates are issued in the most popular Food Control Health Certificates service – Export Health Certificate, GCC Export Health Certificate, New Food Label Approval, Radiation Test Certificate, and Food Destruction Certificate.

This service primarily serves companies that operate in Dubai within the food industry, importing, exporting or producing food for human consumption.

"The free training offered to the customers, that include the companies and individuals who access our services, has enhanced the credibility of the e-Services as a facility that is easy and fast to use. Through these training courses we help our customers to register with us and use the e-Services properly," said Lootah.

An e-Services counter was also set up in the reception of the new block of the main building recently, he said.

"Apart from conducting a tour of the website, the counter helps customers register their names. The touch screen device set up at the counter has been used by hundreds of people everyday," said Lootah.

The current e-Services include No Objection Certification (NOC), Dubai Central Labo-ratory Engineering Materials Test Results, Dubai Central Labo-ratory Food Test Results, Dubai Central Laboratory Block Certificate, Dubai Central Laboratory Sand Certificate, Dubai Central Laboratory Equipment Calibration, Food Control Health Certificates.

Dubai Municipality Clinic Health Certificates, Veterinary Health Certificates, One-Stop Inspection and Fine Results Inquiry, Online Statistical Information, Building Services, Dubai Public Library, Geographical Information System, Parking Fines Inquiry, Revenue Collection, Recruitment Services, Hazardous Waste Disposal, and Dubai Municipality Plans.

In addition to this, another e-service on Drainage and Irrigation Dep-artment will be launched soon.