@linkdevelopment UAE Government Entities Move to the Next Wave of Mobility in their Citizen Services

UAE Government Entities Move to the Next Wave of Mobility in their Citizen Services

LINK Development Unveils Mobile Government Solutions at Gitex 2013

Tarek El Araby

LINK Development, a leading provider of integrated software solutions across the Middle-East and a subsidiary of OTVentures, said today that the Gulf Cooperation Council countries are in the race to win the pole position of a new wave of mobile government (m-gov) services for citizens and businesses, with all six countries ranking in the Top 25 of the key e-readiness indexes. Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain ranked first, third, sixth, 12th and 24th respectively in the government procurement of advanced technology products in the World Economic Forum’s 2012-2013 “World Competitiveness Report.” Also, the UAE ranked 19 amongst 148 economies in the report for its Global Competitiveness Index, of which e-readiness was key, maintaining its position from 2012-2013; Saudi Arabia was 20, Qatar 13, Bahrain 43 and Kuwait 36.

Having some of the highest internet and mobile users penetration, coupled with the resolution of the GCC governments for driving e-services strategies, the six GCC countries are fast-moving towards achieving their e-gov vision.

With a new wave of LINK Development m-solutions to be unveiled by the company and its government customers next week at Gitex, considered the foremost Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) event in the Middle East region, the company is poised to bring more public and private entities online with the new vision of m-government.

“Governments in the GCC and in other parts of the region have realized early on the vital importance of providing their services to citizens and businesses electronically. This early implementation of e-services by the GCC, first launched in Dubai in 2000 with the e-government initiative by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, UAE Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, has now been followed by another swift adoption of mobile government services in response to His Highness’s call  for offering local and international customers of the UAE government entities quick and easy access to a comprehensive range of government services,” said Amin Azab, Managing Director of LINK Development, a subsidiary of OTVentures,  a pioneering digital and technology solutions provider for both online and mobile platforms.

Government entities in the Gulf offer thousands of services and, to get these services, citizens and businesses conduct hundreds of million government transactions every year, according to industry estimates. “There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution for e-gov and m-gov,” said Azab.  “Each organization has a different set of challenges for transforming into e-services and m-services, but none of them wants to be the minority left behind. LINK Development provides transformation to the full vision of m-gov by building on what exists.”

Azab, explained: “The challenge is that each government entity has reached a different level of sophistication on the e-gov adoption curve. These range from the most advanced government departments that offer comprehensive, cutting-edge e-services that only need to be expanded to mobile, to those which offer a portion of their government services electronically, and finally some which have not start providing e-services yet. Also, systems integration and legacy issues come into play when a government department embarks on a plan to offer end-to-end e-services and m-services.”

The LINK Development products and solutions line-up are already enabling e-governments to move to the next wave of mobility in their citizen services, thus enhancing their reach, efficiency and productivity. “The core of e-gov is the ability of government entities to benefit from ICT in developing their citizens’ services and to offer these services through a variety of innovative channels that can cater to the individual needs and expectations of the various categories of citizens,” said Tarek El Araby, LINK Development GCC Commercial Director. The new LINK Development mobile government products and solutions are designed to give users of government services the functionality of accessing most of these services not only electronically, but also while on the move.

“While a lot has already been achieved to move into a comprehensive e-government platform by fully automating the Government to Business (G2B) and Government to Citizen (G2C) services, there is still a wide gap to be filled in order to present a seamless citizen interface with both federal and local government departments,” according to El Araby. “There is a clear trend across our government clients to think about the needs of citizens and businesses and develop their new e-services strategies from there, rather than looking at the internal processes’ requirements. We are working together with these clients to achieve the greater goal of complementing each other’s services for the benefit of the citizen.”

Please visit us at Gitex from October 20-24 at Hall 7 Stand B-10, or go to our website: www.linkdev.com. Follow us on Twitter on: linkdevelopment