To make mTransformation of a country successful, it is important that there is no digital divide there. The UAE aims to achieve 100 per cent mTransformation and promote an electronic lifestyle in the UAE. Following are the UAE’s efforts in bridging digital divide.
In May 2013, the UAE initiated an ambitious journey to move from eGovernment to mGovernment within two years. A new government vision was announced following a meeting of the government officials. The target was set at 100 per cent to make priority services available online through two channels: websites and mobile phone applications.
In 2015, the UAE had achieved a remarkable rate of mobile governance. 96.3 per cent of the UAE government’s most used 337 services made the transition to mGovernment and mServices within 730 days and with the support of 41 government departments. The most important change that was taking place over those two years was the change of mentality and the culture of the government services’ management. Today, delivery of services no longer relies on physical offices and thousands of employees, but on advanced systems and innovative minds because of which, the rate of smart transformation increased dramatically as 98.18 per cent of the federal government services are available online.
The rate of adoption of eServices in the public administration increased in the last three years. It was a big challenge for the government to get the public to shift from using manual services to online services. All departments worked very hard to simplify the eServices so that everyone could use them easily. Government entities used different tools like marketing and gamification and offered round-the-clock customer support, which helped to increase the adoption rate.
The adoption rate of eServices for 2015, 2016 and 2017
One of the objectives of the UAE mGovernment enablers is to raise the level of satisfaction of the public with regard to electronic/mobile services. Since 2015, the user happiness with government’s mServices has increased significantly. The reasons behind that were the increase of public awareness about mServices and increase in the quality of government websites and service quality. The below table displays the rate of user satisfaction with government mServices from 2015 to 2018:
|
Satisfaction with online mobile services |
||||
|
Year |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
|
Happiness index |
67.43% |
65.98% |
71% |
83% |
TRA launched the Government Websites Guidelines, which gives clear instructions and set valid rules for writing web content. According to that guideline, the website content has to be in two languages (Arabic and English), free of grammatical and spelling mistakes and properly segmented (that is no English text in the Arabic version and vice versa). The guidelines also cover domain and hosting, site architecture and design, user experience and usability, accessibility, eParticipation, social media and open data among others. Read the Summary of Web Content Guidelines for UAE Government Entities.
According to the UAE Government’s Guidelines for Federal Websites, a government website should have a software to read texts and alternative texts for the visually impaired people. In addition, all audio and video files on the website should have descriptive captions to assist those with hearing problems. The TRA website is one of the federal websites using such language to help the people of determination (special needs’ people) to browse its pages easily.
The National Policy for Empowering People of Special Needs aims to provide people of determination (people with special needs) with easy access to various information, depending on their individual abilities. According to the policy, entities are required to provide information about services to people of determination and their families in all the emirates, ensuring that all services are easily accessible. The entities are also required to make information accessible using modern technology to people who suffer visual and hearing disabilities.
The UAE’s Ministry of Community Development launched the ‘With Sign’ initiative under the theme ‘towards an open world with sign language’, targeting people of determination especially those who with hearing impairment, to help them communicate with community members through text interpretation with sign language. The text translation is performed by a smart 3D character on the entity’s website. The service enables the hearing impairment categories to ask questions through the website and record their messages through the computer’s camera to be translated.
Smart phones
According to TRA’s report for the second quarter of 2017 on the use of smartphones in the UAE, it is revealed that 81.5 per cent of phones registered on the UAE’s networks were smartphones.
Useful usage
More than 90 per cent of the UAE federal government services are available online. Every government entity in the UAE has a website with electronic services section. This portal is a one-stop shop for federal and local government services. This encourages the UAE’s population to visit the government entity websites and take full advantage of ICTs to complete their government transactions online.
Another aspect where ICT is applied is the eParticipation. The UAE national portal has a large section for eParticipation under the name (Sharik). Sharik provides several eParticipation channels which include consultations, forum, blogs, etc. In addition, each federal government entity has such eParticipation section, where users can participate in government decision and policy-making online.
The official portal of the UAE is also a handy resource for information about the UAE’s government, future, history, culture, economy, touristic sites or geography of the UAE and much more. Some of the other UAE government websites include:
Federal government websites:
Local government websites:
Illiteracy is not an obstacle to internet use in the UAE, as it is less than 1 per cent according to the UAE’s Ministry of Education. Emirati schools are increasingly being connected to the internet and equipped with eLearning facilities, and many of them encourage tablet computers for student use. The Mohammed Bin Rashid Smart Learning Programme was launched to establish a unique learning environment in schools through the introduction of 'smart’ classes.
The UAE is one of the world’s most connected countries. According to the ITU's latest 'Measuring the Information Society Report’, internet penetration in the UAE was at 95 percent in 2017, up from 91 percent in 2016. As of November 2018, there were over 1,300,000 internet subscribers in the country, more than 99 per cent of whom had broadband connections. The UAE has one of the highest mobile phone penetration rates in the region. According to the UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), mobile penetration in 2018 reached 19.4 million subscriptions.
Prices for high-speed broadband in the UAE are the second cheapest in the GCC after Bahrain. Broadband is affordable for most users, given the UAE’s high per capita income. In April 2017, the UAE’s TRA directed mobile operators to reduce the roaming rates within the Gulf region, resulting in an average 18 percent drop in prices for consumers.
As of November 2018, there were over 1,300,000 internet subscribers in the UAE, more than 99 per cent of whom had broadband connections. The Global Competitiveness Report 2018 has shown the UAE’s advancement to the first place globally in mobile broadband subscriptions. The same report ranked the UAE second globally in mobile subscription rate.
The UAE’s TRA launched the ‘Coverage’ initiative to perform a field scanning to test and analyse the quality of operators' networks all over the UAE and to simulate user experience. The coverage implementation mechanism is based on developing a smart and innovative system that is installed in a tailor-made car and indoor solutions that are constructed for field scanning. The aim of this initiative is to ensure consistent high-quality internet and mobile phone coverage all over the country.
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