Smart Dubai’s network of advanced digital services and programmes played a critical role in facilitating government operations, allowing entities to provide uninterrupted e-services during the COVID-19 pandemic in the emirate.

The various e-services on offer helped employees perform their day-to-day tasks with no interruptions when remote work was made mandatory.

Statistics by Smart Dubai’s Messaging and Collaborations Department revealed that Smart Dubai enabled 62 government entities to use online communications services, enhanced with advanced technologies, to strengthen communication among employees during the pandemic and to ensure business continuity.

Smart Dubai’s Government Information Network’s (GIN) capacity was expanded by 300 per cent during the pandemic and ensuing lockdown, multiplying its speed by a factor of three to keep up with growing demand for digital services from various Dubai Government entities. The Network enabled 322,000 meetings, 223,000 group calls, 962,000 individual calls, and 5 million text messages between March and October 2020.

“Smart Dubai has been designing effective strategies and services for years to build an integrated and sustainable digital government ecosystem,” Wesam Lootah, CEO of the Smart Dubai Government Establishment, asserted. “These services played a significant role in ensuring business continuity during the COVID-19 outbreak. Dubai Government employees were able to maintain their outstanding performance, seamlessly offering government services through digital platforms and programmes during the remote work period.”

“The close collaboration between Smart Dubai and other government entities had a tremendous impact on our and their ability to react swiftly to all international developments, ensuring effective operations under any circumstances.” Lootah added. “Our efforts were reinforced, in great part, by the forward-thinking vision of our wise leadership, who has lent its unwavering support to the full and comprehensive digital transition of government procedures, urging close cooperation between Smart Dubai and its government and private-sector partners to achieve and sustain that goal.”

Smart Dubai’s Government Information Network (GIN) forms the cornerstone of the Dubai Government’s digital infrastructure. The unified network connects various entities, allowing them to securely transfer and exchange data, execute government transactions, and protects them from errors or outside interference. This helped ensure seamless government operations during the pandemic, all while maintaining high performance levels.