Rauda Al Saadi, Director-General, Abu Dhabi Smart Solutions and Services Authority: Interview

Interview: Rauda Al Saadi

How is Abu Dhabi transforming digitally to improve government efficiency and interoperability, and what developments can citizens expect soon?

RAUDA AL SAADI: Abu Dhabi has been at the forefront of many economic, cultural and environmental transformations, which have helped the emirate take a global and regional leadership position in many fronts. We aspire to be at the forefront of digital government, through innovative models that set a new bar for government-citizen relationships. Our main objective is to deliver efficiency and excellence in government services to achieve a better quality of life for citisens, residents, visitors and businesses. ADSSSA exists to deliver government interactions for both public and government entities, ensuring those experiences are proactive, seamless, convenient, personalised and secure. We act as the link between all government entities and the public. The objective behind this is to transform existing, fragmented services into a seamless user experience.

As a proof-point of the programmes aiming to deliver the strategic objectives set by Abu Dhabi leadership, we have launched the initial wave of the unified digital services platform TAMM. TAMM leverages advancements in technology to provide citizen-centric services and facilities, known as “journeys”.

Our target is to reach 90% customer satisfaction by 2020, achieve more than 80 end-to-end journeys, and become one of the top-10 countries for ease of doing business and among the top five in the UN’s Online Service Index. TAMM aims to consolidate over 1600 services into 80 digital journeys, saving significant time and money for both the government and citizens.

In what ways does the Abu Dhabi Spatial Data Infrastructure programme serve the local community and business stakeholders?

AL SAADI: Aligned to the vision of our leadership to invest in innovation, the Abu Dhabi Spatial Data Infrastructure programme delivers accuracy and consistency across services that require geospatial data by sharing this information through a common interface. This unlocks a huge potential for smart services in both the public and private sectors.

How are technology partnerships helping to reach the emirate’s digital innovation objectives, and what scope is there for further collaboration?

AL SAADI: The government recognises the importance of forging public-private partnerships. They will prove integral for us to successfully implement Abu Dhabi’s ICT agenda and Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030. As announced during GITEX Technology Week in 2018, we adopted a strategy that enables us to pursue plans in line with the country’s economic and social development goals.

We have a number of successful strategic partnerships with the private sector – we believe that the government can only be successful through forging strong relationships with the complete value chain ecosystem. To this end, we have established partnerships with both global multinationals and local private sector organisations. To deliver these, we have adopted progressive policies to encourage innovation, which is at the heart of our smart solutions to improve everyday life in Abu Dhabi.

It is only through these strategic collaborations that our smart e-government user experience can be achieved, as well as the ongoing evolution of solutions and services for every citizen. Looking to the future, we have planted seeds for collaborative innovation by connecting Emirati youth with leading technology employers across the country. Combining existing top-level training with new and unique development opportunities will ensure that the future generation takes a central role in building a digital workforce, by providing them with the expertise necessary to construct the e-government innovations of tomorrow.