October 20, 2007
Dubai
The “Technology Week” launched on September 23 by Dubai Municipality (DM) continues unabated. The programme, which is aimed at enabling the general public, particularly DM clients to process their transactions online entres its third phase with the Drainage Division taking its turn from tomorrow, Sunday, October 21 following the success achieved by the Environment and Public Health divisions.

Having assigned a week for each of its various divisions during which clients would be educated on how to access online services and process transactions from the comfort of their homes and offices, the municipality has also set up a platform at its main office manned by qualified personnel throughout the period of the programme to help clients adjust to the new system.

In a statement on this occasion, DM’s Acting Director General, Hussein Nasir Lootah, said: “Dubai Municipality is committed to providing excellent services for its clients. It is in view of this commitment that the municipality decided to organise the “Technology Week” and to go fully electronic in all its transactions and services to save time and efforts and to eliminate all boring routine works in the system.

“We are on track with Dubai’s strategy, which is based on rapid and easy discharge of work. Through the “Technology Week” programme the Dubai Municipality has set aside for each of its various divisions a full week during which all transactions related to that division would be processed electronically, to shift from the old system of manual processing of transactions.

“Clients can now process their transactions online from the comfort of their homes and offices and from everywhere. They can also do so at the customer service counter at the main office of the municipality, where the municipality has built a special platform and equipped it with the necessary equipment and personnel to assist clients process their transactions online.”

DM’s Assistant Director General for Technical Services, Engineer Abdullah Al Shebani, said the municipality had taken a giant stride in the area of online services having succeeded in converting about 94% of its services to electronic system. He said his outfit was working hard to achieve 100% conversion of all its services and systems to electronic by the end of the year.

“The Municipality’s clients can now access online all the about 520 services being rendered by the municipality via the municipality’s website. They can also process about 397 transactions online,” he said.

Touching on the reaction of the general public to the “Technology Week”, Al Shebani said the Environment Division’s Technology Week, which was held from September 23 to 27, was highly patronised by clients with the division having recorded 1,250 online transactions within the period. “The Technology Week platform set up in main office trained 65 clients on how to use the new system, 152 new clients were registered. The figure represents a growth of 46%, while 91% of 204 respondents expressed their satisfaction with the new system in a poll conducted during the campaign,” he explained.

He pointed out that there was a significant rise in the number of transactions related to all services. He said the Environment Division is now 100% electronic in the processing of all its transactions and services, adding that the division provides 24-hour online service in the processing of transactions.

Touching on the Health Division’s Technology Week, Al Shebani said the week which spanned from October 7 to 11, witnessed the processing of more than 11,887 transactions electronically.

He pointed out that the special platform built by the DM at its main premise trained 83 clients on how to use the new system to surf through the municipality’s web site, access all kinds of services and process any related transaction independently. He said about 126 new clients, including corporate bodies and individuals were registered, adding that from the 172 respondents covered by a poll related to the new system, 92% expressed great satisfaction on the services offered during the “Technology Week” campaign.

“It’s worth noting here that the Health Division of Dubai Municipality is now 100% electronic in all its transactions and services,” he said.

The “Technology Week” began with the Environment Division on September 23 and was quickly followed by the Health Division from October 7 to 11. The campaign is now in its third week with the Drainage Division, which begins from October 21. It is to be followed by the Planning and Area Division from November 4, then the Building Division – Rehabilitation Section – from November 18 and finally end with the Building Division – Building Permit Section – from December 9.

By embarking on this programme, the municipality aims at further improving the quality of its services, unifying the technical standards and finding rapid solutions for problems to improve the level of customer satisfaction.