The Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Centre (Adsic), the IT arm of the Government tasked with enabling technology across all government services, has partnered with Microsoft to ensure all government entities are online and accessible to all residents.
Microsoft is working on a number of initiatives to provide the Abu Dhabi Government with training and products such as Windows 8 and the new Windows Office 2015. The company did not disclose how much the partnership was worth.
"The Abu Dhabi 2030 Vision was established by the Government and led by the Executive Council. The vision in summary is to transform Abu Dhabi into a citizen-centric government and be one of the top governments in the world," said the Adsic spokesman Rani Saddi.
"ICT [information and communications technology] is one of the key pillars to transform the Government. Our partnership with Microsoft is in line with that strategy."
The Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030 identifies a number of economic priorities including "building an open, efficient, effective and globally integrated business environment" and "driving significant improvement in the efficiency of the labour market", all of which depend on the advancement of technology in the UAE.
Adsic is responsible for the e-Government agenda. Already 95 government and semi-government entities are online and within Adsic's e-Government programme, which offers more than 1,000 services on the portal.
Microsoft held the first of its open door initiatives on Tuesday in collaboration with Adsic to reveal the latest in technological innovation.
"We are showing the latest trends, the latest in store and on the roadmap. The key trends that are shaping the industry and teaching [the attendees] about the resources available to them," said Samer Abu-Ltaif, the regional general manager of Microsoft Gulf.
"The key [Microsoft] initiatives in the country are in alignment with the Vision of Abu Dhabi 2030 in areas of education, entrepreneurship and youth development. We are also placing emphasis on infrastructure for health services."
The UAE is ranked 24th in competitiveness by the World Economic Forum, and technology plays a multi-faceted role, according to Mr Abu-Ltaif.
Microsoft is working on initiatives in the UAE, including Imagine Cup and Digi-Girls, which introduces female students to employment opportunities available in the IT sector.
"In Abu Dhabi we have a partnership with the Government, with the oil and gas sector. In the last year we took the strategic decision to increase our presence in Abu Dhabi and increase our capacity by three times with more emphasis on partners and improving technical skills," said Mr Abu-Ltaif.
The focus has been to build on capacity, training, exposing audiences to the latest technologies around the world.
