The General Secretariat of the Sharjah Executive Council, as part of its Government Development Services project, has wrapped up a laboratory workshop for an updated design of the commercial license issuance process in the Emirate. Over the past three weeks, the Sharjah Department of Economic Development participated with a number of departments, entities, and local and federal government agencies that serve it as partners in fruitful discussions to modernise the service, and a future service model was developed based on ease and speed of procedures.
The updated model has led to a distinctive experience “for issuing licenses” that includes obtaining all government procedures for the targeted activity through the “unified licensing platform”, which will help reduce the points of communication that the customer is exposed to with various government agencies, as well as reducing the procedures to become smoother thus, shortening the duration of the process.
Moreover, the updated model aims to reduce the documents submitted, the number of times of payment, inspection visits, visits to government agencies, and service channels to complete the various stages of service. This module is scheduled to be completed within 6 months.
The discussions relied on local and external standard studies that are an ideal reference for advanced services. The module also followed the method of direct dialogue with a focused group of 7 customers, in the presence of 67 government employees.
The experience of 30 customers was evaluated by telephone, which contributed to identifying the challenges of the current service, and working to find better solutions to them by achieving the standard of effective listening to the customer.
A number of institutions in the Emirate participated in the laboratory workshop, including the Department of Economic Development, the Sharjah City Municipality, the Sharjah Electricity, Water and Gas Authority (SEWA), the General Administration of Civil Defense, the Sharjah Digital Department, the Department of Planning and Survey, the Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA), the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), the Sharjah Businesswomen Council, and the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Invest in Sharjah and Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq).
The federal agencies that took part in the module included the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE), the Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship, Sharjah Customs and Ports Security, General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Justice.
The final day of the adoption of the initial future model of the service was attended by HE Sheikh Saud bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Director General of the Sharjah Digital Department, HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Saqr Al Nuaimi, Assistant Undersecretary for the Support Services Sector in the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE), and HE Asma Rashid bin Taliah, Secretary General of Sharjah Executive Council, HE Hamad bin Ali Al Mahmoud, Head of the Department of Economic Development, besides a number of federal and local officials.
The exercise is part of a series of such government laboratories organised by the General Secretariat of the Sharjah Executive Council in order to design a better customer experience and achieve the objectives of the Government Services Development project and develop future visions and models for them based on precise steps over a specific and short period of time as well as based on discussions that study the state of government services and prepare for future demands and needs.
