The UAE Government has been described as an “inspirational story” in terms of how it has changed its service delivery models and adapted to new technology, while creating a better citizen experience.
Born out of the Government Experience (GX.ae) portal, launched by the Emirates Government Services Program (EGSEP) at the Prime Minister’s Office in the UAE, the country is featured in a new documentary film, GX Now, presented by futurist Ian Khan, alongside governments from Estonia, the Netherlands and Azerbaijan.
The film, which features Mohamed Bin Taliah, chief of government services, UAE Government and Alain Bejjani, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim, among others, covers the evolution of public services and aims to find answers on why experiences may be the key to unlocking the value behind government-citizen engagements.
Khan told Arabian Business: “I think there’s a great story building there in the UAE and the GX is just a small part of it. I think there’s definitely lessons to be learned from the AI initiatives that that the government is taking and the blockchain initiatives. And there’s many, many other things there the UAE Government is currently doing.
“They’ve got tons and tons of frameworks, and they opened up a lot of them during the World Government summit. But I think, definitely there’s an inspirational story right there.”
As the Covid pandemic continues to rampage across the globe, effective governments are accelerating their switch to digital. However, this is not a new phenomenon for the UAE, with the Smart Dubai initiative aiming to make the emirate a completely paperless city by 2021, ensuring all government transactions are 100 percent digitised, saving one million trees.
Futurist Ian Khan
Khan said with the boom in e-commerce and extensive mobile coverage it made sense for governments to get on board.
“The penetration of mobile phones is changing how consumers behave, and how they expect things to be right, because you’ve got a totally different experience on your cell phone when you’re buying something from Souq.com or Amazon.com. But then, when you go and renew your government services, you’ve got to line up for two hours or one hour. And it’s very frustrating.
“In countries where governments have not adopted a service delivery excellence frame work, there is a huge gap between consumer experiences and government experience. The UAE, however, has consistently worked hard at going beyond the norm and today offers a majority of its services digitally, with new ones rolling out frequently. Not only this but the UAE is leading initiatives such as GX and bringing together governments from across the globe to create a framework of excellence that can be deployed anywhere with ease.”
Khan, who previously produced the documentary Blockchain City, said that while the UAE is leading the charge in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia has ramped up its digital transformation in government, other countries in the region have some way to go.
He said: “I know many times it comes across as making a loud claim, but I think they’re (UAE Government) actually genuinely trying to go in the right direction.
“Success for governments in enabling seamless government experience will come through dialogue with the private sector, through citizen engagement, youth engagement, and collaboration with other governments.”
GX Now is available on Amazon Prime Video.
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