TRA to hold a workshop on “Technology Trends and Government
Competitiveness” with experts from the UN and Gartner
Workshop to educate government entities on the upcoming trends and
challenges of related technologies
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) will hold a workshop on
“Technology Trends and Government Competitiveness”. The workshop will be
held on September 13, 2012 at the TRA building in Dubai.
The workshop aims to educate government entities on the upcoming trends and
challenges in the fields of location-based technology and social media and
their relevance to electronic government. Director Generals, Chief
Information Officers and Information Technology managers from federal
entities will be attending the workshop.
Jeff Vining, Research VP at Gartner Inc. will address the delegates and
answer their queries on two topics; “The Future of location-based technology
and smart government” and “The future of social media and government.” Mr.
Richard Kerby, Senior Inter-Regional Advisor, Division for Public
Administration and Development Management at United Nations Department of
Economic and Social Affairs will give an overview of the upcoming UN
eGovernment Survey 2014.
Stressing the importance of the workshop, H. E. Salem Khamis Al Shair Al
Suwaidi, Deputy Director General, TRA – Information and eGovernment Sector,
said, “There is a challenge with every opportunity that technology offers.
As technology advances, so do the challenges. In this workshop, we aim to
create awareness on the same and share the knowhow on how to tackle them. I
would like to call upon the UAE government entities to participate and
benefit from this workshop.”
According to research agency TNS’s annual report ‘Mobile Life study’,
released in early 2012, location-based service (LBS) was the mobile feature
set to grow the most. The survey showed that globally more than 60 per cent
of mobile users that are not currently using LBS want to start using them
and in the UAE, the figure stood at 79 per cent.
The UAE has made an impressive jump of 21 ranks in the UN eGovernment Survey
2012. The UAE is ranked at 28 as against 49 in the 2010 report. The UAE has
achieved impressive results in the sub-indexes of the survey. On Online
Service Index, the UAE jumped from rank 99 in the 2010 Report to rank 7 in
2012. On e-Participation Index, the UAE advanced 80 ranks; the UAE jumped
from rank 86 in the 2010 Report to the rank 6 in 2012.
