E-Government Excellence

Abu Dhabi Systems & Information Center recently won the Outstanding e-Government Prize in the open city category for the location data program for the emirate of Abu Dhabi during the World e-Governments Organization of Cities and Local Governments (WeGO) Awards 2012. This victory reflects the distinguished efforts of Abu Dhabi in implementing the latest technology and best practices in the e-government field in order to provide the best services for the public.

The location data program is one of the Abu Dhabi Government programs that are managed as part of the e-government program for ADSIC with the aim to facilitate the sharing and exchange of geospatial data among government agencies and other related entities and to make the latest geographical information and high quality location e-government services accessible to the public in an easy and convenient manner. The program was awarded the WeGO award. This reflects the advanced position achieved by Abu Dhabi in applying the e-government, especially that, as known, the WeGO award is deemed one of the highly-esteemed international awards that recognize and promoteoutstanding practices of e-governments of cities and local governments. It also highlights the efforts of organizations and agenciesaround the world that use information and communication technologies to improve administrative efficiency and citizen’s access to public services.

ADSIC is the governmental bodyoverseeing the Abu Dhabi’s Information Technology agenda. It also oversees the execution of the e-government program at entities affiliated with Abu Dhabi government by assuming many key roles in this regard such as suggesting technological policies and applications for Abu Dhabi government and its affiliated entities. It aims to achieve overall quality in reaching the highest levels of effectiveness, privacy and security in the e-government project. It also operates as a reference in the field of IT policies and criteria. It supports the execution of IT projects and infrastructure relating to the initiatives of modernizing Abu Dhabi government. Last but not least, ADSIC assumes the “publisher” role to support IT knowledge. The main purpose is to place Abu Dhabi in a leading position in the government modernization field at the regional and international level.

The strategy of the e-government comes in context of the comprehensive vision of Abu Dhabi government aiming to provide services of the highest international performance standards that achieve full benefit to all its customers and transforms the society from conventional economy into knowledge-based economy. It also aims to improve digital education and enhance development to reach the goal of the wise leadership in making Abu Dhabi among the best five governments in the world.

Perhaps what brings confidence in that Abu Dhabi in particular and the UAE in general are taking stable and advanced steps towards applying an e-government and raising the level of readiness of e-transformation of services provided by the federal government to customers and specific indicators in this regard is that the UAE ranked seventh internationally on the “E-Government Services for 2012″ index. It also ranked sixth globally on the “E-Participation” index in the United Nations e-Government Survey” for 2012. This confirms that the UAE has become one of the major experiences in the e-government field, especially in employing digital technology and e-readiness level.