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29 March 2024

Mohammed reviews m-Government

Published
By Wam

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, at a meeting with government officials,  has viewed a report on the results of the transition to m-Government.

Sheikh Mohammed said that an accomplishment rate of 96.3 per cent was reported by the government's most important 337 departments providing services on daily basis to customers at the end of the two-year timeline set for shifting to m-Government and m-Services.

The report,  published in the media upon orders from Sheikh Mohammed, shows that the biggest 41 government departments succeeded in achieving the shift to m-Services within 730 days.

Sheikh Mohammed said, "Work teams managed to complete the shift to m-Services. The next stage is to link all services together, improve the quality of smart applications and achieve a high satisfaction rate for smart services. The report also explains that the low numbers of users of some m-Government services were attributed to low awareness of users and sometimes to the difficulty to use these services."

The meeting with Sheikh Mohammed was attended by  Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Gargawi, Minister for Cabinet Affairs; Mohamad Ahmad Al-Qamzi, Chairman of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of (TRA); Khalifa Saeed Sulaiman, Director-General of Dubai's Protocol Department; Ohood Al Roumi, Director-General Office of the Prime Minister; Hamad Al Mansouri, Director-General of the UAE Smart Government and Director-General of the TRA.

"The target of raising the number of m-Service users to 80 per cent by 2018 has been set. The report also shows varied degrees of quality and user-friendliness of the services... We want these services to be more streamlined, faster and simpler. We also want the customers to be happier than they were in the past years."

Sheikh Mohammed added, "The two-year deadline was not meant to be a scourge hanging over work teams. Rather, it was meant to be just like any other ordinary practice in administration and leadership where a timeline is set for fulfilling each target that we have. The aim of our government is not to keep pace with the ongoing technological and scientific developments in the UAE but to lead these developments. This is no easy challenge"

"A star rating system for all m-Government services will be put in place in the coming stage to inform customers about the quality of any service before they start to  use it."

Sheikh Mohammed said: "The most important change that was taking place over two past years was the change of mentality, the culture of government services and the archaic definition. Today, delivery of services no longer relies on buildings and thousands of employees, but on  advanced systems and innovative minds. In the near future, we will see yet bigger and faster changes."

In May 2013, Sheikh Mohammed had announced a new ‘government vision of the future’ following a meeting with government officials.

The project, called m-Government, follows the e-Government initiative that was launched in 2000 and led to most government services being made available online.

Sheikh Mohammed tweeted, "The Government of the future works 24/7 and 365 days a year. "A successful government is one that goes to the people and does not wait for them to come to it."

Al Mansouri expresses satisfaction at findings of report on e/government transition

Minister of Economy Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri has expressed satisfaction at the results of the final report on transition to m-Government, which showed the marked progress the UAE is making under the wise leadership of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed  Al Nahyan and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

''Findings of the report have highlighted the scale of positive interaction of  teamworks in government entities with the two-year grace period set out by the Vice-President to make the transition towards m-government, which was crowned on Saturday by sheikh Mohammed’s announcement of excellent results that reflected the scale of progress in e-services the federal government is providing to clients as part of the government modernisation initiative,'' Al Mansouri said in a statement following the release of the final report on m-government.

Sheikh Mohammed at a meeting with government officials, viewed the report about the results of the transition to m-Government.  ''A delivery rate of 96.3 per cent in transition to smart services in 337 key federal departments providing services on a daily basis to customers at the end of the two-year timeline set for shifting to m-Government and m-Services is a great achievement if we look at the given grace period. This has proved that the UAE people have lived up to the leadership's expectations and trust and that they are capable of keeping up with the pace of the leadership's prudent vision, which has turned the UAE into a role model when it comes to progress and development,'' he noted.

''Today, we reaffirm anew that we all stand united behind our wise leadership's ambitious vision to reduce the number of clients in government services' centres by 80 per cent through 2018, a target that we will strive to reach as part of the commitment to instructions given by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid and out of belief in advanced methodology in government work, based on quality and excellence,'' he concluded.

Lubna: VP's Mobile Government initiative paid off

Sheikha Lubna bint Khalid Al Qasimi, Minister of International Cooperation and Development (MICAD), said the road map launched two years ago by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, for a qualitative transformation from e-Government to m-Government has paid off when Sheikh Mohammed announced the findings of the progress report on Saturday.

In a statement following the release of the report, Sheikha Lubna said these indexes of success scored after two years of announcement of the initiative were fruit of tireless efforts based on thoroughly-planned measures and specific time-lines that the government set to ensure that transformation happens in a better fashion and advanced technologies as well as  best practices are applied in the provision of government services, consistent with the UAE Vision 2021 to make the UAE government among the best in the world.

Sheikh Mohammed, Sheikh Lubna emphasised, is not only seeking to reach targeted results and indexes, but also applying an analytical method to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses involved in the initiative so as to devise remedies and set priorities and goals.

According to the plan, the number of m-Service users will be raised to 80 per cent by 2018.

UAE Space Agency launch on Monday

Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the UAE Space Agency will launch its official strategy and operational plan this week in Abu Dhabi on May 25.

The official launch event will showcase the aims of the strategy and plan, which are to strengthen the foundations of the space sector and work towards creating a developed and integrated industry, which will enable the UAE to become one of the leading countries in space science exploration.

The UAE Space Agency launch will include a focus on the Agency's mission, values and priorities for the future. The event will also introduce a number of initiatives and programmes being carried out in line with the Agency's strategic goals.

The 5th Global Space and Satellite Forum (GSSF), will begin the following day [on May 26] and will outline the importance of investment in space education and how it can support the growth of the industry and national security. GSSF 2015 will examine the complete journey that emerging and developed space regions need to take from research through to development and modern applications. The forum is officially endorsed and hosted by the UAE Space Agency.

The UAE Space Agency will also launch a space museum at the forum, which will aim at enhancing knowledge and understanding of the UAE Space industry. As part of GSSF, the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) will run a competition to conduct scientific research and comprehensive study in designing and implementing state-of-the-art applications for the use of Earth Observation images acquired by DubaiSat-2.

The competition aims at promoting the utilisation of the DubaiSat-2 mission data. DubaiSat-2 products are expected for a wide range of disciplines spanning from land use and land cover, topography and geology and others. The competition is open to participants across UAE research institutions and universities. Participants are accepted individually or in a group of maximum of five members.

GSSF 2015 will also flag the growing investments being made in the space industry. With an investment exceeding $5.44 billion in commercial and scientific space projects the UAE is steadily progressing towards becoming a truly international player within the space sector. The investment in space technologies are shared among several companies and space programmes including Satellite Communications Companies Yahsat, Thuraya and the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) who lead the DubaiSAT 1 and DubaiSAT  2 programmes.