e-governance gains ground in Abu Dhabi

e-governance gains ground in Abu Dhabi
By Ahmed A. Elewa, Senior Reporter GULF NEWS Published: July 23, 2008, 00:03


Abu Dhabi: The number of hits recorded by the Abu Dhabi e-government portal exceeded 20 million in 2007, and the number is growing steadily, according to a senior official.

"More than half the e-government programme has been accomplished so far, in coordination with international consultants, especially from Singapore," said Rashed Al Mansouri, chairman of Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Committee (SIC).

"We are also coordinating with the federal e-government portal, as we seek to adopt the best standards and practices to meet the target of ranking Abu Dhabi among the best five governments worldwide," he added.

SIC on Tuesday launched the second version of the emirate's IT Architecture and Standards Reference, which represents the general reference for all the ongoing e-government projects adopted by the various departments.

The stages of implementing the e-portal differs among the various local departments, where some are at more advanced stages than others, though the full assessment and evaluation of the progress will be only published towards the end of the year.

"We are also focusing on the training and education of the government employees where we trained about 3,500 civil servants in 2007, and more programmes are being introduced this year," Al Mansouri explained.