Introduction
The UAE and Dubai governments strive for raising public services to the new level, from e-government to smart government. The smart government tools involve measurement of consumers’ satisfaction and happiness and provision of the corresponding reports to assess efficiency of various programs. The government of Dubai launched such incentives as happiness meter and Star Rating System (Wam, 2014). The government also closely collaborates with private investors and companies to improve the quality of public services provided, which is referred to as the public-private partnership (PPP). Technology and innovation play the essential role in this process and, hence, certain attention should be paid to the use of technology in the public sector.
Methods
This research is based on analysis of secondary resources with a special focus on the sphere of PPP. Special attention is paid to particular incentives in such sectors as transportation and policing with a focus on the use of technology.
Results
As far as the transportation sector is concerned, such companies as Serco and Avaya have been involved in the project as a part of the PPP incentive, and this enabled the government of Dubai to significantly improve the quality of services of the Dubai Metro.
It is also important to note that the incentive Smart Government with its ratings and assessments has also proved to be successful as agencies showed improved results in 2015 (see table 2). The public sector is stating to follow the rules of private companies that focus on customer’s satisfaction as it translates into their profitability and competitiveness.
The Dubai police provides more than 300 services via such platforms as Internet, smartphones, kiosks and Intranet. The use of technology and such advances as DNA testing, paperless processes, Google glass, automatic vehicle locator, electronic fingerprints as well as provision of online services have led to people’s increased satisfaction with and even happiness about the policing service provided by the agency.
Table 1: the transformation at Dubai Metro through PPP (Serco Consulting, 2014)
Table 2: Smart Government Transition Review May 2015
Discussion
It is possible to note that the efficiency of the public private partnership incentive is associated with the transportation system (the Dubai Metro) while effectiveness of the use of technology is related to the improvements in the work of police. It is found that the population of Dubai is satisfied and even happy with the work of these agencies. This can be seen as a positive outcome of the use of strategies employed in the private sector. Thus, the use of the public private partnership is especially beneficial as private companies strive for better service and have developed numerous efficient tools, which enables them to achieve increased customers’ satisfaction. The use of assessment is another potent tool in achieving better results as agencies can evaluate effectiveness of their work and implement the necessary change. Finally, the use of technology is of paramount importance for the implementation of the smart government in the UAE.
Conclusion
On balance, it is possible to note that it is possible to increase the quality of public services provided if the government will utilize the PPP, assessments available to the public and state-of-art technology.
Reference
Serco Consulting. (2014). Dubai Metro. Web.
Wam. (2014). Dubai launches star rating system for government sector. Gulf News. Web.