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Dubai eGovernment eyes Dh1bn revenue this year |
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9/4/2008 10:46:06 AM |
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Dubai's integrated electronic payment system (ePay) has collected Dh602 million so far this year and is expected to record revenues of Dh1bn by the end of 2008.
E-pay, created to facilitate and secure electronic payments, acts as a payment gateway between Dubai residents and the government. Revenues collected go directly to various government departments without a need for physical interaction.
Speaking to Emirates Business, Salem Al Shair, eServices Director of Dubai eGovernment, the agency behind ePay, said: "We have already recorded a four-fold increase from last year's revenue of Dh250m. The year before that it was only Dh54m. We're looking at Dh900m by the year-end, and with luck, we could even achieve Dh1bn."
Beginning with 205 transactions amounting to Dh120,000 in 2003, the number of transactions has gone up to 555,562 at the end of August this year, amounting to more than Dh602m, according to data from Dubai eGovernment.
Al Shair said the eGovernment has spent Dh1bn over the past eight years, and added the initiative puts no cap on investments.
"Investment is a never-nding story and improvements will continue to happen," he said. "I don't think what we have today will be good enough three years down the road, so we will have no cap on our spending."
By the end of 2007, Al Shair said a methodological and statistical study showed the percentage of government services available for customers via non-conventional channels touched 91 per cent.
"A 90 per cent e-enablement is high in terms of international standards. Also, 100 per cent e-enablement is not possible. In birth certificates, you need to have a baby to be delivered; for a death certificate, you need a body that needs to be checked by the doctor. There are transactions where physical interactions have to be made," Al Shair said.
He added improving the quality of services availed to customers is currently the top priority. For one, they are going to revamp their portal – www.dubai.ae – due to its unsatisfactory content and design. Dubai.ae is the eGovernment's official public portal, which integrates all the e-services of Dubai government departments.
"I am not really happy with it at the moment. Hopefully by the year-end we will re-launch it and it will have a better look and content," he said. "The most important thing is a person transacting must feel happy because if he does, he'll do other services, talk about the services and others will be encouraged to interact with the government electronically. And if they have a bad experience, it will spread." He said they have created more than 140 criteria to gauge the performance of each government department's e-service programmes.
Asked if these criteria are mandatory for the departments, Al Shair said: "The e-services quality evaluation is being done every year and then we send the report to His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. Nobody wants to be last because the report goes up there."
Earlier this year, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs' eGovernment Survey ranked the UAE in fifth position in terms of transactional services, just behind developed countries such as Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the US.
The survey also placed the UAE 32nd among 192 United Nations member states in the 2008 eGovernment Readiness Index. |
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Source: Business24-7.ae |
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