The General Authority for Regulating the Telecommunications Sector held a workshop entitled “UAE’s Model for Digital Government Maturity as an Enabler to Achieve the National Index Targets”, which was attended by e-Government representatives of the UAE and the OSI Executive Team at TRA’s headquarters in Dubai.
The workshop was held to discuss key findings of the maturity model development project, present recommendations and proposals developing the work and bridging the gaps in relation to electronic and smart governments, and the realization of UAE Vision 2021. The TRA launched this model in April last year in collaboration with the University At Albany, with the goal of achieving the national OSI and becoming the first globally. The project consisted of two sections; the first is a survey on digital government readiness, and the second is the digital government maturity framework. The workshop generally reviewed the results of both sections of the model.
Commenting on this workshop, H.E. Salim Al Hosani, Deputy Director General for Information and e-Government Sector (DGG-IE) and Head of the OSI Executive Team, said: "This workshop is part of UAE’s efforts to achieve the National Agenda Targets and accelerate the realization of UAE Vision 2021. H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, reiterated that the UAE Government is results-oriented and the best result it seeks to achieve is to provide best world-class services to make people's lives easier and happier, and that government practices in the UAE must live up to be the standard specifications adopted by the rest of the world.
Al Hosani pointed out that the launch of UAE Digital Government Maturity Model was intended to realize these visions, saying: "The National Agenda of the UAE is based on six sectors: economy, security, education, national identity, health system, sustainable environment and integrated infrastructure. In each of these sectors there are multiple indicators that many teams work to achieve at the local and federal levels. One of the most important indicators is to be ranked first globally in online government services by 2021. This indicator measures a set of key principles adopted by the United Nations for Sustainable Development 2030. The UAE Model of Digital Governments aims to address the most important issues related to seven areas against which the E-Government Index is measured, namely: health services, education, social life, economic growth, employment and labor, environmental protection and public security. If we can meet the UAE model requirements, we can certainly meet the UN requirements.”
Mr. Al Hosani stressed that measuring the quality of electronic and smart services is not only done at the federal level, but also at the local level, and we must be the world's number one at the federal and local levels. He added: "All e-Governments and m-Governments will be subject to this model and will be categorized into five levels, starting from a very low maturity level to a very high maturity level. Results obtained are indicative and should be discussed at the highest levels in each local e-Government."
The workshop concluded with the receipt by each team of m-Government representatives of their own government's model results to be submitted to the leadership and senior management for study and discussion to develop work and thus upgrade e/m-governments in the country.