Reportage
ing plan among GCC countries to en-
sure information security.
8 Awards to UAE
His Highness Sheikh Majid bin Mo-
hammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum,
Chairman of the Dubai Culture & Arts
Authority honoured winners of the 3rd
GCC eGovernment Award. The UAE
scooped 8 awards, 5 of which went
to Dubai. His Highness Sheikh Majid
also honoured the strategic partners
including Bahrain eGovernment Au-
thority, Saudi Arabia e-Government
Programme, Kuwait’s Central Author-
ity of Information Technology, Oman’s
Information Technology Authority, Qa-
tar’s Supreme Council for Information
and Communication Technology and
the GCC Department of Planning and
Knowledge.
Winners in the 8 categories were:
Best Government Portal: UAE’s
DEWA and Bahrain’s Ministry of
Health.
Best Government e-Service: UAE
Dubai Courts for the “Remote Regis-
tration of Cases” Service and Oman’s
Ministry of Interior for Elections Sys-
tem.
Best Government Interoperable Ser-
vice: UAE Ministry of Interior’s “Fawri”
Service for automatic work and en-
try visa application submission, and
Oman’s Ministry of Manpower for
“Employment Collaboration” Project.
Best
Government-to-Government
Shared Service: One Stop Shop by
In his speech, H.E. Mohammed
Ahmed Al Qamzi, Chairman of
TRA, said: “Despite the recency
of the mGovernment initiative, we
have, so far, exceeded the de-
signed objectives. Today, we have
a clear roadmap to transform into
mGovernment that provides its
services through mobile platforms
round the clock, surpasses custom-
ers’ expectations and satisfy them.
The mGovernment will be dynamic,
flexible, innovative, quick in adapt
-
ing to new developments and as
hospitable as hotels”.
He underlined that the GCC eGov-
ernment Award, Conference and
Exhibition is another milestone on
the road to unifying efforts focused
on eTransformation and laying
foundations of the knowledge soci-
ety, economy and eGovernment.
He added: “While the UAE was the
first in the region to establish an
eGovernment in 2000; today we
can see a remarkable development
within GCC countries in connection
to eGovernment. This has allowed
exchange of expertise, visions and
positive competition, embodied in
the eGovernment Award we are cel-
ebrating its third edition today”.
Al Qamzi highlighted that the con-
ference coincides with the start
of UAEs’ drive towards mGovern-
ment in response to the initiative
launched last May by His Highness
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al
Maktoum, Vice President and Prime
Minister of the UAE and Ruler of
Dubai. “As usual, the UAE puts its
expertise at the disposal of its broth-
ers following directives of its pru-
dent leadership who always want
the UAE to be a house of expertise
for its brothers”.
He added: “In October 2013, our
country saw an important devel-
opment, the launch of the ‘Smart
City’ project in Dubai. This falls in
line with the global trends in utiliz-
ing networking technologies, cloud
computing, mobile platforms, smart
apps and mobile internet in estab-
lishing an integrated smart environ-
ment that meets the 21st century’s
people requirements”.
He pointed out that “the Secretariat
General of the GCC has taken tan-
gible steps towards building a uni-
fied Gulf eGovernment, which will
hopefully become live soon. These
steps were taken by emerging or-
ganizations such as the Ministerial
Committee of Gulf eGovernment
that will shortly hold its third meet-
ing, and the Executive Committee
of Gulf eGovernment that is set to
hold its 12th meeting once this con-
ference concludes”.
Al Qamzi concluded: “implementa-
tion of this guiding strategy requires
maximum cooperation and collabo-
ration among all stakeholders in
the GCC. Fortunately, the interest
in GCC joint-work has consistently
been strong; and this esteemed
gathering is a good evidence”.
Mohammed Ahmed Al Qamzi:
We have a clear mTransformation roadmap and have
gone beyond the designed objectives
Government strategies
to focus on people with
special needs
