Riyadh Municipality upgrading GIS services

The GIS department of Riyadh Municipality has been trying to improve its services and technology through different schemes and programs.
“We are trying to give special data and map services to government bodies and other organizations in the country, Khalid Abdul Aziz Al-Ameery, GIS director at Riyadh Municipality, told Arab News on the sidelines of Gitex Technology Week that will run until Thursday.
Riyadh Municipality is actively participating in the five-day event in Dubai.
“We provide a number of services that are linked to GIS,” he said. “The Saudi capital is experiencing rapid growth over the past decade and GIS has become so important for government organizations and citizens. We always respond to all types of queries related our department,” he added.
“We have a professional team of city planners, geographers, computer programmers and network specialists in our department,” he said.
Dubai Municipality has, meanwhile, launched the Sandstorm Forecasting system at Gitex venue.
“Sand storms can pose a great problem for people living near the desert regions. For example, Arabian Peninsula experiences more frequent sand storms as compared to the other regions. Therefore, Dubai Municipality started the sandstorm prediction project. It will be an extension to the existing Dubai Municipality’s fog monitoring and forecasting system, which runs at Dubai Municipality since 2010,” said Mohammed Mahmoud Mashroom, director of survey department, Dubai Municipality.
The new system is introduced in collaboration with Unique System FZE, a Maritime Group Company and one of the world’s major integrated turnkey subsea and offshore solution providers.
Another notable event was Etisalat’s alliance with Dubai Police to offer easier payment solutions to customers.
The announcement came during a MOU signing on the 2nd day of GITEX Technology Week.
The new deal empowers Etisalat to provide Dubai Police with its innovative solution for online fine payments.
Customers can use this service to pay all their fines through multiple banking channels, including ATMs, tele banking, Internet banking and bank tellers.
“Etisalat’s EZeepay facilitates the payment gateway, using a secure payment channels that are integrated with strong infrastructure containing banks in the UAE. Aiming to promote efficiency and greater customer satisfaction,” said Abdulla Al-Ahmed, SVP, business solutions, Etisalat-UAE.
The Ministry of Health (MoH) and Dubai Health Authority (DHA) launched e-applications at different venues.
These smart applications will provide ultimate support and services for patients. Ali Al-Ajami, director of Information Technology at MoH, stated that the soon-to-be launched innovative e-application that provides telemedicine to patients in remote areas will improve medical services across the region, and reduce patient visits to hospitals and costs.
“The new methods are part of the federal government’s strategy to make e-Services available for all citizens at any location,” he added.
Meanwhile, Dubai Health Authority signed an agreement with Samsung SDS in collaboration with INDEX Holding to provide and apply a comprehensive smart health care application to all medical and healthcare centers in Dubai.
The partnership aims to support the cooperation between the public and private sectors in order to provide the best e-services and smart services for health care professionals, doctors, nurses, staff, officials and administrators in the health care sector.
Essa Al-Maidoor, director general of the Dubai Health Authority, said the DHA was studying a number of big projects that are expected to see the light soon. “We encourage collaboration between the private and the public sectors and we are partnering with prestigious private corporations to achieve our specialty hospitals in Dubai. We would like to see Dubai as the major city in the Middle East for Health tourism.”