Dubai's smart plan for 24-hour access to government services

The project aims to have all departments available online within the next two years.

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DUBAI // A transformation is under way to make electronic government services in Dubai accessible 24 hours a day using smartphones and other mobile devices.

Five policy documents will be issued to all government departments by the end of October defining smart services, implementation and planning guidelines, implementation policy, security guidelines and a delivery-excellence model, Amer Al Hamayda of Dubai Smart Government told the summit.

More than 40 departments and other entities, including Dubai Police, Dubai Courts and the Roads and Transport Authority, will have to adopt the new system.

The policy documents are intended to unify the standards of service among government departments to provide simple, user-friendly formats for members of the public.

Dubai Smart Government has met senior representatives of all government organisations to work on the formulation of a unified strategy for transformation into smart government.

Each department was asked to come up with criteria and guidelines to ensure that access to all government services was available on smart services within two years, Mr Al Hamayda said.

“The new policy documents … envision a world-class smart government for the 21st-century,” he said.

The unified policies will allow all government departments to have “well-defined mobile shared services provided” such as authentication, payment and data exchange.

The new policies will also focus on security as a critical component in ensuring complete customer trust and confidence in mobile services.

They will also address issues regarding accessibility, usability, content and the user experience to conduct quality evaluations in due course.

“Our transformation has begun,” Mr Al Hamayda added.