Dubai: A one-stop web portal launched by Smart Dubai is bringing a wealth of government services and open data to residents with the simple click of a button.
Dubbed Dubai Pulse, the web portal is expected to make life simpler and more convenient for millions of Dubai residents by making essential services available on smartphones and personal computers saving the need to stand in long queues at government offices.
Open data provided on the portal includes information caches ranging from transportation and security to housing and bill payments — Dubai government expects 80 million fewer car trips by motorists who opt to pay bills on the portal instead of running errands in the next four years.
The Dubai Pulse portal will help in Smart Dubai’s online offering of 137 smart initiatives and 1,129 smart services to individuals to pay fines, find government forms, renew licences and documents or search for vacant properties.
On its www.dubaipulse.gov.ae web portal, Smart Dubai stated that “as articulated by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid (Al Maktoum), Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the vision for Dubai is to be the happiest city on earth.
“In order to fulfil the vision of Shaikh Mohammad, the Smart Dubai office and du have built a multi-purpose Dubai Pulse that will serve as the central platform for providing computing and storage services, core analytic services as well as Big Data services, for use of various entities in the UAE for the purpose of utilising such data to enhance the way of living for all of UAE’s citizens and residents, and promote the vision of making Dubai the smartest and happiest city on earth.”
The web portal was launched in April under a new Smart Dubai 2021 initiative by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, at the Future Now exhibit in Dubai Design District.
At the well-attended roll-out, Shaikh Hamdan pledged to move to a 100 per cent digital future within four years leading to the Dubai Government issuing “its last paper transaction in 2021”.
Shaikh Hamdan said the launch marks “the beginning of a new phase — Smart Dubai 2021 — that revolves around challenging ourselves and surpassing our own previous achievements. We are looking to build a truly smart city, one that uses technology as the key to a balanced and happy life.”
He called the Dubai Pulse online platform a “backbone of Dubai’s transformation and shift towards smart technologies”.
Shaikh Hamdan ordered all government departments to begin populating the platform with data.
“Today, in the era of Big Data, it is essential to have a central platform to house all of the government’s data, a platform that taps into the potential of artificial intelligence to spread happiness among the people,” he said.
Dr Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, director-general of the Smart Dubai Office, told a large crowd that the Smart Dubai 2021 action plan and Dubai Pulse portal will make life better.
“Smart Dubai 2021 is our action plan for the near future as we work to transform Dubai into a fully smart city with smart government services that make people’s lives and business dealings easier,” Bint Butti said.
At the launch, she told Gulf News that the Dubai Pulse online platform will help relieve some of the daily stress in residents’ lives by giving online visitors the ability to pay and do errands online, reducing the number of physical trips across the city.
“Imagine yourself living in Dubai, you have kids, you want to register them in school, do health checks — you can do them all online at one touch, that will make you happy,” said Bint Butti. “You become more mindful of what’s happening around you. You know what are the things, events happening next week.”
Smart Dubai 2021 calls for intelligent use of ICT to transform the city’s core components, which include six main pillars — from government, companies and society to individuals, resources and infrastructure. The initiative will digitise 100 per cent of government services and eliminate the need for physical visits to customer service centres.
Log in to Dubai Pulse
All of Dubai’s electronic data that is publicly shareable with a view towards transparency and convenience is now available on Dubai Pulse.
To log on, visit www.dubaipulse.gov.ae/
