Xinhua, Dubai :
The announcement of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government to provide most public services through e-channels in the coming years has triggered a race among global ICT firms to provide adequate products and services which can be seen at the ongoing ICT congress Gitex technology week.
With over 3,700 regional companies from 61 countries and expected 100,000 institutional and retail visitors, Gitex 2014 is the biggest information technology fair and exhibition in the Middle East and Africa and one of the biggest congresses in the world.
Inaugurated earlier Sunday by Dubai crown prince Sheikh Hamdan Al-Maktoum, smart government services provided by the host country UAE occupy a major platform in the exhibition halls of Dubai world trade center.
Earlier in the day, the UAE general authority of Islamic affairs and endowments (Awqaf) announced the successful completion of an upgrade project done in partnership with leading Chinese ICT group Huawei. The upgrade would help to consolidate Awqaf’s systems across the UAE and provide the public faster access to its e-services, said Sufian Dweik, vice president at Huawei’s enterprise business section for the UAE.
Huawei also showcases its solutions that could contribute to the smart government and smart city vision at its stand at Gitex, among them an intelligent surveillance system as well as an router for public buses. “With an end-to-end portfolio of hi-tech solutions and experience in delivering projects across the Middle East, Huawei is ideally place to make the Middle East cities of tomorrow a reality,” said Shi Yaohong, the president of Huawei Middle East.
According to Cyril Voisin, regional technology officer at American bellwether producer Microsoft in Dubai, the initiative by the UAE government to provide nearly all services like paying parking tickets or utility bills through online platforms or with smartphones has opened Microsoft various ways to partner with Emirati government “as we have implemented similar smart solutions in other countries and we can share our experience.”
UAE ministries, for example, will provided with Microsoft cloud computing solutions while the public will get its own cloud and there will be hybrid clouds to share part of information, statistics for example, which the Emirati government and their institutions are allowed to share with the general public.
