By Ebby Chacko George
MUSCAT — Ubar portal, the Sultanate’s main gateway to electronic services offered by the government, will be launched in July with its operational phase scheduled for October, Dr Salim bin Sultan al Ruzaiqi, Chief Executive Officer of Information Technology Authority (ITA), said here yesterday. Speaking at the first Ubar portal content workshop at the Radisson SAS Hotel, Dr Ruzaiqi said Oman’s e-readiness ranking has gone higher over the last two years.
To further accelerate this pace, progression to the next level of e-governance through the delivery of services is required, he added. For this, ITA is working towards the facilitation of infrastructure and delivery platforms, Dr Al Ruzaiqi noted. All infrastructure projects related to Ubar portal are either being integrated or under implementation, he added.
Presentations were made on Ubar portal content and infrastructure at the workshop attended by representatives from various ministries. Details of the content collection process involving stakeholder ministries and how Oman can integrate the delivery of e-services were discussed. The ITA team briefed the participants on the approach as to how the ministries can prepare content in a manner that will facilitate its delivery through Ubar portal, the first national project towards e-governance.
Named after the ancient Omani city of Ubar, the ‘Atlantis of the desert’ and a main trading gateway into the Arabian Peninsula, this modern web portal is designed to provide a rich, personalised, unified, and highly customisable experience to users. Anytime, anywhere access to the portal can occur through multiple channels such as the web and mobile devices. Navigation on the portal site will be simplified through a life event service delivery model and searchable content.
Yaqoob Dur Mohammed al Balushi, Director of e-Service, highlighted the Ubar electronic, transactional platform. “If it is well used, it can save time and effort for all,” Al Balushi said. He also discussed the phases in the development of Ubar portal since the signing of the operational agreement with GBM and NCS. ITA is in the process of collecting information on various aspects of government entities to incorporate the data and services on Ubar portal. A questionnaire has been circulated among ministries and other government entities in this regard. The primary objective of the questionnaire is to ensure that the content featured on the portal is accurate, Al Balushi said.
Information in the questionnaire will be analysed and categorised according to an information architecture that will be developed for Ubar portal. The information architecture will provide quick and easy access to government information and services provided to citizens, residents, visitors and businesses in a logical and citizen-centric manner. ITA has floated a tender for specialised agencies to undertake the bilingual content collection process.
Oman’s e-Governance initiative is committed to creating a knowledge society by helping all people to become information communication technologies (ICT) enabled and providing them e-Government services that will make their lives better and more convenient. With a wide variety of citizen-centric initiatives connecting society with the government, eOman will ensure that citizens, residents and visitors experience more efficient public services.
To any portal visitor, a click of a button triggers a number of automated, sequenced, and synchronised service delivery steps in a seamless and transparent manner. The visitor authenticated identity will be transmitted to various systems involved in the service delivery for authorisations required to complete the service delivery process. The use of electronic forms and digital signatures will eliminate visits to government counters to submit signed paper applications. Payment for online services will occur electronically on the portal and will provide the service requester with a choice of payment instruments.