"Currently, we offer 245 e-services as part of the municipality's e-Government service which started in October 2001," said engineer Hussain Nasser Lootah, Chairman of Dubai Municipality (DM) e-Government Steering Committee. "However, some 80 per cent of them are related more to businesses and companies and only 20 per cent are for the general public. This also includes information services for various services and facilities offered by the municipality," Lootah said.
Lootah said that people can log on to the municipality website www.dm.gov.ae and then go to DM Services to choose the e-services available. There is a full list of services offered by the civic body.
Users can check their parking fines and can even pay them by using either e-Cards or their credit cards.
They can apply for fishing permits, permission to have a barbecue on the beach or in a park, as well as permission to visit wildlife sanctuaries in the emirate.
There is also an online service for schools to arrange educational tours for students to zoo, parks and sanctuaries.
"We are in the process of launching 27 new services as part of phase four of our e-Government programmes," Lootah said, while addressing the 11th GCC e-Government Forum in Dubai on Monday.
More than 13,000 companies are registered to conduct online business with the municipality. Only recently, Dubai Municipality managed to complete one million online transactions. More than Dh6.5 million has been collected through e-payments.
The number of transactions, which were only 30 to 40 per week in the beginning, has now reached about 12,000 per week.
"We are on our way to achieve our target of 90 per cent online services in 2007 with at least 50 per cent transactions carried out online at the moment. The e-Government initiative has changed the relationship between customers and the government, it has developed customers' trust due to its transparency," he said.
The e-Government initiative, he said, aimed to transform the provision of municipal services to businesses and residents in Dubai. It aimed to provide significant and measurable benefits to its customers, he said.
"The key objectives include the establishment of a new service delivery channel, which allows customers to apply for, track the status of service requests and enhance the provision of relevant information and reduce the time taken for the customer to obtain a service," he said.
Although, he said the focus of the municipality's e-Government services had been the business sector, it was now working to provide more online services to the general public.
"The e-Government services allows Dubai Municipality to bridge a perceived gap by allowing users to request services anytime and anywhere, thus resulting in significant cost and time savings, estimated at over 30 per cent reduction compared to the traditional means of obtaining services.
The e-services provided by the municipality include clinic and medical services for clinic health certificates and cards, drainage and irrigation services, inspection and fines inquiry, imports and re-export, demarcation service, classification of land uses, hazardous waste disposal, in addition to facilitating e-payment.
"Our aim is to convince more and more customers that the online services provide several key benefits over traditional service delivery channels.
This, in turn, will increase e-service adoption to even higher levels," said Lootah.
Fast facts
- The municipality's e-government service started in October 2001
- It currently offers 245 e-services
- It is in the process of launching 27 new services
- Its number of transactions has reached 12,000 a week
- Online services include payment of parking fines
Autor: Ashfaq Ahmed
Quelle: Gulf News, 25.05.2005
