IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

During the ceremony, which took place at the Department's headquarters at H.H. Dubai Ruler's Court, H.E. Ahmed Bin Humaidan expressed his appreciation and gratitude to all the teams that have significantly contributed to the GRP Systems Upgrade project, highlighting their organized efforts wherein they communicated with the Department's government partners through a series of meetings to better understand and address their needs and requirements.

Over 1,000 procurement professional from 33 departments access this portal to advertise upcoming tender opportunities, to search, select and evaluate suppliers and to award contracts. The entire process is managed online, providing buyers and prospective suppliers with the most efficient, effective and transparent means of interaction with Government entities.

The government resources planning (GRP) systems upgrade for Oracle includes many new features that fits the requirements of eGovernment in terms of streamlining processes, preparation, archiving and consolidating reports. The GRP upgrade was consolidated into presentations that highlighted the expected results and benefits of the system upgrade, and answered queries from representatives of government entities. Under the schedule, teams representing government entities will train until July on the new features that will be implemented in the new version. There will be a trial period for the system until August, while the system will be officially launched at the end of October. The training sessions will be divided into two categories: financial and human resources management, and supply chains and payroll.

The workshop was attended by the representatives of 30 government entities in Dubai, who became familiar with the technological and financial aspects of the project. Dubai eGovernment also selected the SPAN Group to develop the system in government entities for the management of their government assets.

Dubai eGovernment kicked-off its preparations for GITEX early this year by forming teams of event organizers and technicians for the design and construction of the exhibition platform. The teams also consulted with other government departments in Dubai to cater to their respective requirements and help ensure a successful showcase of all eServices being offered by different departments. Dubai eGovernment has also established a special media team to communicate with various major print, broadcast and online media organizations and ensure adequate coverage for its participation in the event.

A number of government entities are currently using this service, which covers Salik recharge from RTA, payment of traffic fines from Dubai Police and payment of electricity bills from Dubai Electricity and Water Authority.

The new updates introduced by Dubai eGovernment to users allow activation of the auto-payment/auto recharge of the government services provided by mPay regularly (daily, weekly, monthly or at a specific date for payment or recharge).

Dubai eGovernment's participation in the annual event comes as part of its commitment to keep pace with the latest developments in technology for supporting the emirate's eTransformation; in which local departments play a major role in implementation of the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, that Dubai continue to be a major emirate in the region based on a knowledge economy, as it seeks to make life easier for its residents by providing them with such government eServices that enable them to complete their government transactions anytime and anywhere, thereby helping save their valuable time and effort.

Dubai eGovernment has signed an MoU with the Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA). Under the terms of the agreement, Dubai eGovernment will introduce central applications that will integrate EIDA online identity applications with the Population Register and link EIDA to all other Dubai.

EIDA will provide the necessary technological applications to read the data stored in Emirates ID cards, as well as the infrastructure for the digital identity applications and unified identity management in order to verify the identity of clients.

Dubai eGovernment will soon be able to offer ‘dotDubai' domain names, after successfully applying for control of the top level geographic domain with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Dubai eGovernment was awarded rights to the dotDubai domain, after demonstrating its operational, technical and financial capabilities to ICANN. Once procedures have been established, Dubai eGovernment will now be able to register Dubai government entities and businesses, Dubai-registered organizations, non-profit organizations, NGO's and associations registered in Dubai or at any of the Dubai Free Zones, with a domain name ending in .Dubai.

To facilitate access for all industries, the 51 catalogued services are classified into two categories, the first covers 42 services offered to government authorities and organizations, while the second includes 9 services targeting individuals and businesses. The services are presented in a hierarchy showing the various divisions and sections of Dubai eGovernment, with detailed description on every service and its prerequisites.

Dubai eGovernment has urged all Dubai government departments that adopt Government Resources Planning (GRP) system for running all their basic daily financial, logistic and administrative operations to attend a presentation about the objectives and phases of an upgrade plan for the GRP system, which is currently being adopted by 42 government entities in Dubai. The presentation of the implementation plan, which was developed by specialized teams in Dubai eGovernment to update the GRP system, will be held on Wednesday, April 4, 2012 at the Raffles Hotel at Wafi Centre, Dubai.

Commenting on the dual awards for Dubai eGovernment, Ahmad Bin Humaidan, Director-General, Dubai eGovernment said: "I congratulate the eServices team for receiving this double honour, which is in line with the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai for enabling the public to complete their government transactions in one place through a one-mobile stop shop. Such awards clearly indicate our favourable pace of eTransformation in Dubai as traditional government services shift towards eServices, particularly on mobile phones."

Recent statistics revealed by Dubai eGovernment show that there has been a 65 percent increase in amounts collected through Dubai eGovernment's ePay payment gateway in 2010, compared to 2009. ePay enables customers to electronically pay their bills and settle dues for various government services in a safe and secure manner.

A total of AED 2.5 billion - through 1,888,412 transactions - was collected through ePay on behalf of all the participating Dubai government departments by the end of December 2010. This compares to a total of AED 1.7 million through 1,444,788 transactions in 2009. Dubai Customs, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) and Dubai Municipality were the top three government entities respectively in terms of the electronically collected amounts, while the Roads and Transport Authority, DEWA and Dubai Customs were the top three government entities respectively in terms of the number of transactions achieved.

The event, one of several forums held by Dubai eGovernment Department, is aimed at promoting the eTransformation process and achieving integration among Dubai government entities while offering creative government services that go beyond the expectations of society. The forum is held as part of the Department's keenness on enhancing the existing communication with its government partners and providing them with the necessary tools to achieve further digital integration with the aim of easing the lives of individual and corporate customers to ultimately lead the way towards transformation into a creative, interrelated, integrated and knowledge-based city in the 21st century.

mPay achieved an increase of 11 per cent and 39 per cent compared to 2011 in terms of amounts collected and number of transactions respectively. mPay enables customers to inquire about and pay for some government services, either through an iPhone app that combines all the services in one place for implementation in one step or via SMS, thereby providing ease and convenience to users.

Dubai eGovernment announced that its mPay mobile payment gateway has collected over AED 3.5 million for the first half of 2011, which is almost a 50% rise in collections when compared to the same period last year.

The mPay mobile payment gateway (https://mpay.dubai.ae) is an emergency payment gateway for customers to make payments of fines and fees using SMS on their mobile phones. Interested customers first have to sign up for the service on the website, along with their credit card details and can then enquire and pay by SMS to 4488 from anywhere and at anytime; especially if the customer does not have access to cash or the internet to pay for traffic fines, Salik top-up and DEWA bills.

Dubai eGovernment has announced that its official Jumeirah-based Training Centre, as well as the other training halls at its headquarters in H.H. Dubai Ruler's Court, has seen outstanding performance in 2012 in terms of the training courses offered for Dubai government department employees for the use of Dubai eGovernment's systems and services.

The number of training sessions, workshops and implementations of Dubai eGovernment's systems across Dubai government departments has surged by 70 per cent from 2011 to reach a total of 226 courses in 2012 and was attended by 3,292 employees from 35 government departments, which represents a 160 per cent increase over 2011. These training sessions and workshops have contributed to raising the bar on practical and vocational training in compliance with the emirate's eTransformation goal of becoming a knowledge-based economy.

A total of AED 1.7 billion – through 1,396,973 transactions – was collected through ePay on behalf of all the participating local entities by the end of June 2011. This compares to a total of AED 1.1 billion through 835,095 transactions in the first half of 2010. Dubai Customs, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) and Dubai Health Authority were the top three government entities respectively in terms of the electronically collected amounts, while Dubai Health Authority, Roads and Transport Authority and DEWA were the top three government entities respectively in terms of the number of transactions achieved.

Payments for 2,883,401 transactions reached AED 3,833,912,347 by the end of December 2011, as compared to AED 2,568,124,172 for 1,888,417 transactions in 2010. The top three departments in terms of amounts collected were Dubai Customs, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) and the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) respectively, while the top three in terms of number of transactions were DHA, DEWA and the Roads and Transport Authority respectively.

The online payment services provided by Dubai eGovernment Department through the Internet and mobile phone for instant payment of government fees are experiencing increasing demand by the public with over AED 2 billion collected in the first half of 2012 representing a 21% increase over the previous year. ePay enables customers to electronically settle their dues for various Dubai government services in a secure manner.