Because he seeks for EIAST to be key
part of the mGovernment initiative and a
contributor in its success, he was keen to
ensure that EIAST’s action strategy is in
line with the UAE strategy. Therefore, he
used space research to support decision
makers on Earth.
Being keen on using modern technol-
ogy, he gave his instructions to develop a
smart app with Emirati hands and an inter-
national design to cover all aspects of con-
cern to EIAST in an exciting and attractive
way. The app is expected to be released
by the end of this year. Below is the in-
terview of H.E. Yousuf Hamad Alshaibani
with mGov.
What is your vision about the initiative
of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin
Rashid for seamless transition from an
eGovernment to mGovernment?
In fact, the UAE was able to go beyond
traditional methods in offering services
thanks to the clear vision put in place by
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin
Rashid Al Maktoum, the UAE Vice-Pres-
ident and Prime Minister and Ruler of
Dubai. The UAE government was able to
adopt international experiences and pro-
vide a robust and attractive investment
environment and infrastructure.
Every day, the UAE take big leaps to-
wards the future, asserting its position as
a leading country in the technological and
economic fields. It has now also ranked
top positions not only in the Arab World
but in the whole world in the ICT and use
of technology fields to serve various eco-
nomic and service activities. The aim is to
achieve the happiness and satisfaction of
citizens and residents.
Undoubtedly, the smart government is a
great initiative, especially that His High-
ness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-
ways stresses that the ultimate goal is for
the UAE people to be the happiest in the
world.
I believe that the timing chosen by Sheikh
Mohammed to launch the initiative is the
perfect time for such transition.
EIAST seeks to be key part of this initia-
tive. We even seek to offer services that
contribute in its success.
To what extent does this initiative re-
flect on EIAST strategies?
Upon developing EIAST’s action strategy,
we have taken into consideration that it is
in line with the UAE strategy in general
and Dubai’s strategy in particular. There-
fore, we started furnishing the local and
deferral departments and organizations
with ideas to help them offer their services
in a smart way.
To achieve that, we opened a communi-
cation channel with these entities through
which we can provide their needs. In the
next stage, we plan to offer our services to
these entities through smart devices.
Does EIAST also support scientific
ideas for developing the mGvernment
systems?
Certainly, the goal of entering the space
field is to support decision makers on
Earth by offering services that assist the
smart government. We have placed the
advanced technologies in the space field
for the benefit of smart services offered by
the various government entities and orga-
nizations.
We launched Dubai Sat-1 and Dubai
Sat-2 and now we are working on Khalifa
Sat-3 to be launched in 2017. These sat-
ellites have provided us with high resolu-
tion images of various areas across the
UAE. Such images serve several sectors
like the geographic information systems
(GIS), an important sector that is used by
all government organizations and depart-
ments that need the state maps.
Does EIAST provide support to young
researchers?
We are considering offering
satellite technology servic-
es through smart apps
