Dubai – Masaader News
Following the success of ‘Day without Service Centers’ initiated by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and launched by the Department of Finance in October 2017, Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA), the regulatory body for Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO), has rolled out its ‘Hala’ initiative to achieve a comprehensive digital transformation of its services to customers.
Dr Mohammed Al Zarooni, Vice Chairman and CEO of DSOA, and Abdulrahman Saleh Al Saleh, Director General of the Government of Dubai’s Department of Finance, inaugurated the Hala initiative in the presence of officials from DSOA and the Department of Finance.
The Hala initiative aims to motivate customers to use digital platforms to seamlessly process all queries. Introducing the concept, Dr Al Zarooni said: “Hala will serve as a key contributor to DSOA’s 2021 Strategy that is based on the UAE Vision 2021. The initiative is founded on the direction of our wise leadership to strengthen Dubai’s position as the smartest and happiest city in the world. We are committed to maintaining growth levels and forging partnerships with international corporations across all sectors, while onboarding businesses in the technology field towards ensuring the country’s continued march to sustainable development.”
He added: “As part of the Hala initiative, the DSOA Customer Happiness Center will transform into a reception suite that delivers advanced smart services to all segments of the society, including elders and people of determination. In order to stay updated and relevant, we are committed to training employees of high caliber to handle our smart service offerings and remain innovative with advancements in the sector.”
For his part, Abdulrahman Saleh Al Saleh emphasized the Department of Finance’s keenness in actively contributing to realizing the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, of achieving a paperless government by 2021, as mandated by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council. Al Saleh commended the enthusiastic and proactive collaboration of Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority in supporting the effort and becoming one of the first entities in Dubai to successfully digitally transform its services.
Hala follows a successful experiment, in October 2017, where DSOA, alongside more than 34 public and private entities, temporarily closed its service centers, with the aim of encouraging business partners to use the smart services in place. After another 5-day trial that took place in January 2018, DSOA received positive feedback from 2,459 DSO-based business partners who praised the efficiency of the smart service offerings at hand. Motivated by the optimistic response, DSOA transformed the Customer Happiness Center into a reception suite to guide users through the digital channels of the smart services.
The initiative complements DSOA’s dedication to ensuring that the entity expands as a smart services provider, and grows as an integrated hi-tech city through incorporating efficient technologies for its business partners. In a bid to achieve this priority, DSOA has facilitated an online portal for users to gain access to over 340 services. Using this portal, customers can pay fees via their e-wallet, submit enquiries and track the status of their application and payment. It has also organized training sessions for its business partners to ensure active usage of the portal. Furthermore, in line with Hala initiative and the drive to digitize services, the Authority has placed a round-the-clock e-wallet deposit machine at its headquarter building for its customers.