Factors Affecting Trust And Confidence In E-government Services In UAE

Factors Affecting Trust and Confidence in E-government Services

Discuss about the Demographic Factors As Determinant Of E-Governance.

In the Era of technology, each and every function is taking the routes of digitalisation. The ways of governance have also changed over the years. UAE is another such country where government is taking the technological routes for operating their business (Al Athmay, 2015). There are various e-government strategies that are made by the government of UAE. There are various factors that decide the success of the e-governance. E-governance has a positive effect on the trust and confidence of citizens in the e-governance services. Building of trust and confidence is based on various factors. These factors have a deep influence on not only the government services but also on the trust factor present in the minds of people. There is framework designed by the government for UAE National Identity Management System. It helps in providing better experience to the users about the government services. This report discusses the factors that are affecting the confidence and trust of citizens in the e-government services. It also describes the suitability of the theoretical framework that is used in the case for developing UAE National Identity Management System. In the later section of the report federated identity management system from UAE e-government strategic framework perspective has also been evaluated along with one major challenge.

In UAE there are lot of advancements in technology that are going on in various sectors. It has empowered the governments to facilitate the citizens with better services. Technology has helped the governments and citizens to come closer (Al Neaimi, Ranginya & Lutaaya, 2015). In the start, e-government services were not able to build the confidence and trust in the minds of the citizens. This is due to fact that there are many factors that are affecting the trust and confidence of people regarding the e-government services. Some of the most common factors in this regards are:

• Ease of operating: Simpler operations in e-governance always promote trust and confidence in the minds of the citizens. It is essential that government of UAE adopts the technology that makes their processes easier to access for the people. It is essential to maintain the usability of such services so that people in different parts of UAE could take the benefits of the services.
• Value-driven: The success of the e-government services also depends on the value that it provides to the citizens. This includes better decision making, better service provisions, better security and safety (Al-Jaroodi & Al-Dhaheri, 2011). More the value provided by the services through online mediums more is the chance that customers will have attachment with this mode of services.
• Citizen Driven: Another essential factor that makes the e-governance successful is citizen driven approach. This means that the services must be transparent. It should also ensure the participation of the citizens. It must illustrate to produce shared governance. More the participation of people in the services more is the chances of making it successful. The biggest benefit that technology provides to the government is that it makes the whole service process transparent. This is the biggest problem in the traditional forms of services given by government. In order to make sure that people have faith in the government, transparency plays a highly major role.
• Technology Driven: The e-governance is successful when there is use of collaboration tools as well as platforms. The use of apps can be beneficial in making the e-government services successful. If the e-government portals get updated from time to time, so that citizens could avail the necessary information from the e-governance sites (Al-Khouri, 2012).
• Economic/cost Driven: The success of the e-governance can be beneficial when the technology used in the e-governance services is economic and cost effective. Economic or cost driven approaches are always beneficial as they help to serve the purpose for which e-governance has been adopted (Al-Khouri, 2012). Such approach let people to believe that the program is cost effective and hence confidence can be built in the minds of people.
• Design: Better the design of the e-governance services better is the chances of its success. It is essential for government to make the services in a manner that it is accessible to each and every citizen of the UAE. Use of Smart technologies always helps in having a better response from the citizen’s side. A group of dedicated staffs is always helpful in maintaining the effectiveness of the system which is necessary for building trust and confidence in the minds of people. It is also necessary for the government to add more and more services to the online mediums.
• Digital Literacy: In the country like UAE, the digital literacy is one the higher side hence it will be easier for the government of UAE to interact with their citizens with the help of technological tools (Al-Khouri, 2013). It is essential that government runs some kind of program so that awareness about the e-government services could be given to the people.
• Strategic framework: For UAE government, it is essential that they have a strategic planning for the development of better e-governance services. In the longer run such structures helps in maintaining the usability of the e-governance sites. It builds trust and confidence as it ensures that people will have a higher participation in the government activities and will play a role in the policy making.
• Fast services: One another thing that helps in building of trust and confidence in the minds of the employees is the service speed. It is to be noted that e-governance not only gives the convenience to the citizens to access the services of the government from anywhere but it is also very fast in dealing with the service requirements (Gauld & Goldfinch, 2006). It is best fit for the purpose of resolving queries that citizens have against the services.
• Safe and Secured systems: It is often seen that hackers tries to attack on government portals or sites so as to achieve their motives. Their major idea behind is to steal the data of the government plans as well as related to the citizens of the nations. In the cyber war that is going on in various parts of the world, it is essential for the organisations to provide a protective and secured environment to the citizen so that they can access the services as per the requirement (Al-Khouri, 2014). UAE government has to give proper care towards the safety and security of the networks. This will help them in gaining the trust and confidence of their citizens.
• Grievances handling: There are various grievances that occur in the services that are provided by the Government of UAE. In this regard, it is essential that government services that is provided through the use of internet. Handling of grievances at the time it is generated will help the UAE government in building trust over such services.
• Policies and regulations: It is essential that an organisation makes policies and regulations that help in improving the lives of the people through the use of e-government services. If the system enables citizens to participate as well as ensure improved delivery of services then it is possible to have higher state of trust in the minds of the people (Conklin and Whiet, 2006). For this policy and regulations must be made appropriately.

For the year 2012-2014, the government of UAE made the framework at the federal level so as to change all government services. This has to be available electronically using various channels. This framework is highly suitable in terms of the fact that it is strategically sound as well as allows continuous progress in the way e-governance will be developed in the years to come (Ayed & Ghernaouti-Hélie, 2011). There are various themes that are incorporated by the government of UAE so as to ensure that work is done in a better manner.

Suitability of Theoretical Framework for Developing UAE National Identity Management System

The UAE national identity management infrastructure is a strategic initiative to improve internal security. It is developed as a federated identity management system helped secure e-government transactions. A federated identity is a means of linking an individual’s electronic attributes and identity. These data are stored at several distinct identity management systems. Such systems would allow people to make sure that they have a same password, user name or other personal identification for signing in to the network of more than one organisation for doing transactions. The national identity card is one of the most advanced in nature. It is considered to be as one of the most secured smart cards in the world (Chanchary & Islam, 2011). The card has identification parameters that are accumulated effectively in the smart chips. It helps in establishing an individual’s identity on site (physically) as well as virtually or say in some other place. It also helps in having trusted and secured transactions. The multi factor authentication that gives match-off-card5 and match-on-card4 features, verification, facilitates validation as well as authentication of a provided identity.

The suitability of the theoretical framework can be understood by the following features:

• Authentication: This is one of the most essential components for any kind of electronic data. The framework made by the government of UAE has ensured that there is authentication of every data that is registered in the cards. It is basically a smart card that is capable of having the large amount of data which can be changed as per the requirement of the authenticated person. The data in these cards are highly safe and can be located from anywhere (Elbadawi, 2011). These are smart as the location of the cards can also be known to the person that are authorised to access these data. The identity cards also contain the data regarding the Biometrics. It is also having Digital Certificates so as to authenticate the person having this card. It is also having PIN details of the persons so as to locate and authenticate a person easily.
• Confidentiality: One another aspect of the framework that UAE government has applied to the cards is the confidentiality regarding the data on the cards. It is essential for any e-government to ensure the safety of data (Dr. Al-Khouri, 2012). This card provides details only to the authenticated persons having the rights to access the data. In the cyber-war that is going on in various parts of the world, this is the biggest challenge for any government.
• Identification: The technology that is used in these smart cards is highly good for the purpose of identification. This smart card have government trusted identity verification infrastructure (Farooquie, 2011). This makes it highly useful for the any government services as people can present this card for verification irrespective of the place they are in.
• Non-Repudiation: There is non-repudiation feature present in these cards. This makes is highly advanced and useful as citizens could it for multi-purposes. These cards can be used as the Digital Signatures as well as time stamping.

All these features are present as per the framework that is made by the government of UAE for their E-government services transactions. Since there is presence of digital signatures as well as authentication modes like Biometric and PIN hence it is very useful.

In the development of National Identity Management System all the frameworks have been effectively monitored. The development of the NIMS is based on the legal and regulatory environment that is governing the development process. It also includes the development of powerful governance structure for facilitating communication among various shareholders.

In the longer run it is estimated that the people who are coming for availing the services of the e-governance can take use of this card for their convenience. The strategic objectives behind the development of identity card are providing the e-services, giving e-readiness (Jaafar, Hamza, Hassan & Hefny, 2014). It also has an objective to provide ICT environment. There are various strategic dimensions that have to be addressed. For e-services the dimension is to improve the electronic maturity of the government agencies. It also aims to look for enhancing the competitiveness of the UAE in the e-government sector. With the e-readiness they want to look the strategic dimension like designing and constructing a shared application and infrastructure for enhancing cooperation in between government agencies as well as reducing the IT project’s cost. It also promote e-readiness in government agencies and governance models by constructing structures, helping the operation’s standardisation as well as giving it the people that are in need. With the objective of ICT environment, it aims to have a provision of a legal framework for ensuring the success of the strategies related to the e-government (Karmakar, 2015).

Federated Identity Management System in UAE E-government Strategic Framework

It is to be understood that in the development process there are certain work themes and line of actions is used. They want to develop effective mechanism for performance management. From Identity cards they also want to launch and provision of e-government applications as well as services. In this process they want to support infrastructure development in the UAE. Provide Strength to the governance mechanism and regulatory framework for providing e-government services in UAE.

The federated Identity management system for UAE developed by the government of UAE helps the citizens to avail the e-government services. It has been designed for supporting government to citizen transactions as well as to promote trust in the minds of citizens regarding the e-government services. The e-governments strategic framework 2012-2014 throws light on the federated identity management systems which helps in explaining the potential role in helping the transformation of e-government (Lori, 2011). It also helps in successful implementation of the strategies made by the government. As discussed above there were many objectives that were made by the government of UAE for their e-government strategic framework. These identity cards have been designed for several internal security issues as well as for helping the citizens to avail the services provided through e-governance.

This card is highly secure and hence is able to keep the data related to the citizens as confidential. In the increasing cyber use and adding of the governance services that is provided to the citizen, it is essential to have a highly secured system. The objectives of giving an ICT environment that is capable of easing the lives of the people at the same time ensuring the safety of citizen’s data is essential. Since the data of a citizen is becoming his or her life hence safety of data has become one of the essential aspects of their lives. For improving the quality of their lives, these cards can be very useful.

In the Arab region many tensions that are going on in between different cross border parties. In such an environment managing internal security has become very crucial. In this regards the role of such identity cards become very important. This helps the government to ensure that they have an idea regarding everything about their citizens (Mkude & Wimmer, 2013). This plays a very crucial role in the development of lot safer environment.

This strategic framework has ensured that it is capable of solving problems related to both consumers and government. Revenue collection has to be quickly embraced and at the same time it also changes the way in which government is doing its business. This has increased the accountability of the government and the people that is having certain kind of authority.

Challenges in Developing and Using National Identity Management System in UAE

There is a very long range of research that has been done with the help of various sources available in ICT infrastructure in the nation. The government also has a plan and schedule for the development of such identity cards. There was a proper distribution of time that will be used in the development of the cards (Rodrigues, Sarabdeen & Balasubramanian, 2016). Every step in the development process has been made before-hand. Every aspect of the problems has been studied so as to ensure the success of the e-government strategies. There is an infrastructural support that has been provided to this system so as to achieve maximum and intended benefits from it. The government will be able to launch its programs with the help of such identity cards. On evaluation of the system it is seen that there was many system for management of various data of the citizens. This system enables government to have a unified data where every credentials about the users gets stored.

There are many challenges that are facing the development of such card. Most basic and essential challenge is the fact that there is cyber-war going on in the whole world. In such an environment managing the data safety of the world is very crucial. With a system having the personal information about so many people in the UAE, this becomes even a greater threat (Rokhman, 2011). Even the cards are considered to one of the safest identity cards in the world still there is ample chance that it could get cracked. Increasing cyber-crimes can be noticed in many parts of the world. This is because of the potential hackers that are searching for any kind of loop holes so as to enter into such systems and taking data. The strategic framework for this card ensures that there will only be few persons that are authenticated who can do auditing and editing of such data. 

Apart from this it is also essential that government also checks the fact that it does not use the data of the citizens for any other purpose or do not share with any other parties. Not even for making the political ties with other nations.

Conclusion

From the above based report, it can be concluded that as e-governmental services are becoming common in whole world and hence UAE government is also moving towards it. UAE’s government has developed strategic framework that is capable of making the lives of the people better with the help of the technology. There are various factors that are affecting the confidence and trust of the citizens in the e-government services. In this regards an important role is played by the National Identity Management System. The strategic Framework 2012-14 has helped them in ensuring that all the essential aspects related to the development of a universal identity management system can be easily done. The biggest challenge that is facing towards the development and use of such systems is the amount of cyber-crimes or data thefts that is going on in the whole world.

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