The third edition of the Best m-Government Award will be launched in December, enabling residents to rate their most preferred online government application, a senior ministry official announced on Tuesday.

This year's award has two additional categories — One Stop App and Smart Wearable Technology — bringing the total number of categories under the award to 10. The winners will be announced during the Government Summit in February 2016.

"The importance of the award at the national level is indicated by the rising number of mobile phone subscribers in the UAE. Currently, the country has about 17 million subscribers and penetration rate of nearly 200 per cent with an average of two phones for each user. This scenario offers a great opportunity to take advantage of the latest technologies to provide enhanced services to customers,” said Ohood Al Roumi, director-general of the Prime Minister's Office.

The award committee will begin receiving nominations from federal and local government entities, teams of university students in the UAE as well as Arab and international nominations for all categories from December 10 to 17 through its website www.mgov-award.ae.

"The award is an opportunity to strengthen the cooperation between federal and local government entities and university students. These sectors had witnessed significant interactions during the previous two editions of the award, leading to the development of some major projects reflecting active participations in the efforts to create innovation based government services of the future,” said Ohood.

Describing the two new categories in the award, Hessa Bu Humaid, executive director for Government Services Sector at the Prime Minister's Office, said the One Stop App category will recognise mobile innovations of government entities that provide easy access to a range of relevant government services through a convenient one-stop app, putting citizens at the core of service delivery.

The Smart Wearable Technology category recognises innovations in wearable technologies ranging from fitness bands, smart watches, cameras and glasses to clothing. International reports indicate the use of smart wearable devices will increase at an annual rate of 35 per cent over the next five years.