The Department of Municipalities and Transport (DMT) and its subsidiaries declared the completion of more than 1.1 million digital transactions in the course of the first quarter of this year, which represents 84% of its total transactions for the period.

The three municipalities under DMTs umbrella achieved more than 223,000 digital transactions (93% of their total transactions) during Q1 2020 verses 97,000 digital transactions (50% of their total transactions) during Q1 2019.

The Integrated Transportation Center carried out nearly 896,000 digital transactions during the first quarter of 2020, accounting for 82% of the Centers total transactions at the time of this period. The Centers digital transactions included more than 480,000 digital transactions for the reservation of taxis.

Despite nearly 70% of its workforce throughout the three municipalities working remotely during the coronavirus crisis, the department has made sure the provision of its digital services remain at the same quality and efficiency, allowing citizens and residents to execute their transactions conveniently.

These efforts are in line with DMTs move towards digital transformation in all of its transactions in the course of the upcoming period, including platforms for individuals and companies, such as "SmartHub" and "Tawtheeq" among others.

H. E. Falah Al-Ahbabi, chairman of the Department of Municipalities and Transport stated that, The implementation of this large number of our digital transactions comes from our eagerness to implement our wise leadership vision that goals to put Abu Dhabi on the map of smart cities worldwide, by providing innovative, easy and fast government services that benefit citizens and residents.

We have a clear strategy for the upcoming years based on the roll-out of many innovative projects that are in line with the global standards that presently classify Abu Dhabi as one of the best cities in the world to live in, His Excellency mentioned.

His Excellency continued: The digital growth has created many positive effects around economic, social, environmental, and operational aspects, both by achieving high efficiency in completing customers requests and minimizing the time taken to obtain services by two hours per transaction, and through simplifying access to services and saving around 3.7 million hours in productivity levels.

Total digital transactions completed by the Municipality of Abu Dhabi City during the first quarter of this year amounted to more than 128,800 transactions, which represent 96% of the total transactions in the course of this period, compared to 43,800 transactions that represent 57% of the total transactions during the first quarter of 2019.

Al Ain Municipality executed 77,000 digital transactions in the first quarter of the year, which represent about 90% of the municipalitys total transactions, compared to nearly over 52,000 digital transactions (58% of total transactions) at the time of same period last year. Al Dhafra Region Municipality recorded more than 6,000transactions in the same timeframe, accounting for 80% of the total transactions, compared with 1,700(6%) in Q1 2019.

Additional savings have seen 1.66 million driving hours minimized and environmental pollution cut by about 5,600 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, along with 9.91 million paper transactions and 2.2 million visits to municipal service centers, saving AED96 million in working hours.