All government-related services will have to be performed online this Thursday…

Over the last several years the Dubai government has worked hard to roll out a number of useful apps and online portals that can help residents and citizens alike do everything from pay their DEWA bill to see what’s on the city’s events calendar to locating the nearest medical clinic.

It seems, however, that not everyone is taking advantage of these time-saving apps, preferring instead to visit one of the city’s many service centres in person.

To that end, HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has called for ‘A Day without Service Centres’ on Thursday 26 October.

Designed to encourage people to make better use of the variety of available apps, all government service centres will not perform their usual functions tomorrow, instead employees will be on hand to educate the public on how to use various smart channels to complete tasks.

“Customer service centres will dedicate their efforts on Thursday, 26 October, to spread awareness among customers of the importance of transformation to smart channels to complete transactions, whether via smart apps or the web. On that day, all transactions requiring payments will be stopped for one day at the centres, but will remain available through all smart channels”, noted Abdulrahman Saleh Al Saleh, Director General of the Department of Finance (DoF) which is behind the initiative.

The overall aim is to help Dubai reach its goal of becoming one of the world’s smartest cities, whilst helping save time, effort and money of its customers across all sectors.

Service centres will resume their regular duties on Friday.

Need to brush up on what government apps are available? You can check out the full list here.

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Images: Dubai Media Office, iTunes