Dubai:
The Department of Economic Department (DED) in Dubai is studying 26 mega trends in technology, including blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI) among others to develop a “frictionless” experience, a government official said on Monday.
“We looked at the future and compared about 182 new mega trends hitting the world out of which 26 of them are hitting Dubai directly, and we are prepared for that. One of them is blockchain and the second one is Artificial Intelligence,” Mohammad Shael Al Saadi, chief executive officer corporate strategic affairs sectors, Department of Economic Development in Dubai told delegates at the Blockchain Conference Dubai 2018.
“Why we are looking at breakthrough algorithms and those new technology. It’s not because we love to make life complicated. We have got here 205 different nationalities with more than 10,000 different cultures. The UAE is in the middle of so many cultures. We need to look at it because we want to create frictionless society,” Al Saadi said.
Last week, His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai launched Emirates Blockchain Strategy 2021.
Under this initiative, 50 per cent of government transactions will adopt the blockchain platform over the next three years, which the government says will save Dh11 billion in transactions and documents processed routinely. It is expected to save 398 million printed documents and 77 million work hours annually.
In 2016, DED partnered with IBM and launched the city’s first cognitive computing service to facilitate business licensing and registration in Dubai. The DED also launched an app for consumers to complain incase of any issue with any of the retailers. Among other projects, DED is looking to also condense data required for registering companies present under 26 freezones in Dubai.
New procurement solutions:
The DED in Dubai partnered with Tejari, a strategic procurement solution provider, to digitise supplier submittal of invoices and manage supplier invoices online, in a move to make it a paperless office.
The eSupply website will make DED the first government entity in Dubai to activate automated registration and qualification of suppliers, the DED said in a statement.
“Through launching the new system we aim to bring our contracts and procurement management to eSupply, the central procurement system of the Dubai Smart Government. Access to data and information in the system will be provided to all our stakeholders and companies dealing with DED and its agencies in due course. This will create a competitive procurement environment by cutting cost and effort as well as expediting decision-making,” Mohammad Al Shehhi, Deputy CEO, Corporate Support Services sector in DED said in a statement.
