You will get government services on your mobile phone

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, unveiled an initiative whereby government services will be delivered via mobile phones and other advanced technology tools - as part of his vision to provide services to people wherever they are and at any time.

Sheikh Mohammed made his remarks as he launched the ''Smart Government'' initiative, an advanced step of e-government, during a meeting organised for more than 1,000 officials. The meeting followed Sheikh Mohammed's instructions given during a recent Government Summit to improve public services.

“We have succeeded in promoting a modern concept of a creative e-government, and today we are proceeding towards a government which will provide its services via mobile phone, building on the fact that we have the best communications infrastructure in the world with nearly 14 million mobile phone subscribers, and an average of two mobile phones for each person,” Sheikh Mohammed said.

“Today, we want to take government service centres to clients who can submit their applications through a mobile phone or any other mobile device from any place without waiting ... the successful government is the one which goes to clients wherever they are and doesn't wait for them to come to it,” he added.

The Vice President  explained that Smart Government seeks to maintain the UAE's leadership in electronic progress and adopt international best practices in that regard, noting that the UAE has been leading the e-transformation charge in the region since the year 2000, when it launched its e-government initiative.

He said that the UAE ranked seventh as the world's best provider of e-government services and today it is entrenching its position by launching the most advanced mobile government.

“Our role as a government is to make people's life more easy and achieve happiness for them. Our duty is reach out to all categories of society regardless of their e-status and e-culture, and offer them the best public services,” Sheikh Mohammed stressed.

He instructed federal and local government to provide their services in creative channels within 24 months.

He emphasised the need for continuous improvement in government services so as not only to keep abreast of the latest developments, but also to take control over them in delivering smooth, easy-access public services to customers wherever they are.

Sheikh Mohammed said that a creative government is the advanced one that forges ahead and breaks the routine, to always be number one.

The new initiative aims to prod government entities to work out creative solutions for providing round-the-clock government, with simple, high efficient and transparent services through mobile phone applications that meet customers' expectations. Further, making them aware of the importance of communicating with customers anywhere they are, consistent with Federal Government policies to enable a high quality of life for UAE nationals and expatriate residents, in line with the UAE vision, 2021.

In a quick  response to the initiative, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Fund, an initiative of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), announced an allocation of Dh200 million in support of the mobile phone applications.

The ICT will offer technical assistance and advice.

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