The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) held a workshop on ‘Utilising Facebook to achieve the objectives of government organisations’ on Monday December 10, 2012 at its Dubai office.The workshop was held with the aim to impress the relevance of Facebook as a vital tool to communicate and connect with the public and to encourage government entities and organisations to adopt the tool. Representatives from the government departments of corporate communications, public relations, marketing, content development and social media attended the workshop.
Emphasising on the importance of the workshop, H. E. Salem Khamis Al Shair Al Suwaidi, Deputy Director General, Information and eGovernment Sector said, “In line with the initiatives of H. H. Sheikh Mohammed, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who utilises the various social media channels for direct communication with the public, the TRA encourages government entities in the UAE to adopt Facebook and support the free flow of communication and information.”
“The objective of utilising Facebook is to enhance communication within the different sections of the society and to contribute towards an open, transparent and connected government,” he added.
Elizabeth Linder, Government and Politics Specialist at Facebook, UK addressed the participants and shared her expertise on how government entities could utilise Facebook to achieve their organisational objectives.
The TRA held this workshop towards fulfilling its role of enhancing the eGovernment programme in the UAE and achieving comprehensive eTransformation at the federal level.
The TRA has also developed Guidelines for Social Media Usage document that provides guidelines to government entities on safe and effective use of social media tools.
The UAE actively supports the use of social media in the process of governance. According to the United Nations’ E-Government Survey 2012, the UAE was ranked 6th in eParticipation; 8o ranks up from 86th rank in the 2010 report.
