A UAE company has offered to build a sustainable smart city in Iraq with a total area of nearly one million square metres, the Iraqi press reported on Wednesday.
The planned city is located in the Sumerian “UR” town in the Southern Dhi Qar Governorate and will comprise houses, hotels, a university, schools, hospitals, roads, green areas and other facilities, Aliqtisad News and other publications said.
Read more: IQ: UAE firm offers to build smart city in Iraq - It is located in Dhi Qar province
Iraq is laying the foundations for e-commerce after years of violence, government officials said during a dialogue on e-commerce and the digital economy late last month in Baghdad. The event started week-long consultations that are part of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) assessment of the country’s readiness to engage in e-commerce.
This is the first such exercise in a non-least developed country, according to an UNCTAD press release.
The new system will create an electronic archive that is sustainable and readily accessible and will provide for better services for citizens, such as improved internet and mail services, officials said.
"The e-government project in Anbar aims at providing the best services to the public," said directorate head Mohammed al-Nouri, describing it as "one of the most important advanced systems used in Arab and foreign countries".
Read more: IQ: E-government system introduced in Anbar offices
As you sit at home facing your personal computer, you can renew your civil records, pay your taxes, fill in a passport request form and seek other services. All of these depend on the possibility of finishing the electronic governance project which links the country’s provinces through 1 digital system.
Ministry spokesman Abdul Zahra al-Hindawi, told AKnews that the e-government project will provide a rapid link between ministries and government institutions as well as providing the Iraqi citizen with an electronic portal to the government, enabling many administrative tasks to be conducted online.
Read more: IQ: Ministry forecasts e-government functioning by December