How Dubai government achieved 100% paperless goal

The complete digital transformation in the Dubai Government will enrich the smart city experience for all Dubai residents, entirely removing the need for paper transactions and documents – be they handed out to customers or exchanged between employees across government entities. Digitalisation will also help provide exceptional experiences for residents through the DubaiNow application, which allows access to more than 130 smart city services in 12 major categories.

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, today announced that the emirate has achieved the objectives of the Dubai Paperless Strategy launched in 2018 to establish itself as a leading digital capital and become the world’s first paperless government.

With the Dubai Paperless Strategy fully implemented, no employee or customer of the Dubai Government will need to print any paper documents or transactions, unless they prefer to do so. Printing can be done at service or typing centres.

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Here is how the strategy was implemented:

— The Dubai Paperless Strategy was implemented in five consecutive phases, each of which enlisted a different group of Dubai Government entities.

— By the end of the fifth phase, the Strategy was fully implemented across all 45 government entities in the emirate. These entities provide more than 1,800 digital services and over 10,500 key transactions.

— Collaboration and integration among participating entities enabled the automation of processes and services provided to customers

— The efforts cut consumption by more than 336 million papers. The Strategy also helped save more than Dh 1.3 billion and over 14 million-man hours across the Dubai Government.

What is the Dubai Paperless Strategy?

The Dubai Paperless Strategy was launched in 2018 with an initial group of six entities. Stage one helped cut paper usage by more than 72.5 million sheets of paper.

The second phase followed in 2019, with eight additional entities joining. Stage 2 succeeded in reducing paper usage and saving more than 229.5 million sheets of paper.

At the end of 2019, the third phase of the Strategy was announced with a new group of nine entities. The group collectively cut paper consumption by more than 12.9 million sheets.

Phase four began in March 2020, with a new group of 10 entities joining the effort to implement the Strategy. The group succeeded in reducing paper consumption by more than 11.9 million sheets of paper. The fourth phase also included the launch of the ’100 per cent Digital Stamp’ initiative.

The fifth and final phase of implementing the Strategy began in June 2020, with nine new entities joining the effort. The group saved more than 8.2 million sheets of paper in total.

Two additional government entities have also recently joined the Dubai Paperless Strategy: The Financial Audit Authority Dubai and Dubai Chamber. The two entities achieved their strategic goals by 100 per cent and saved more than 938,000 sheets of paper.

dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai