Emirates ID to unify public services

By : Muaz Shabandri

DUBAI ( Khaleej Times - The UAE's Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA) announced a series of initiatives on Monday as part of its drive to transform e-services in the country.

Speaking at a Press briefing, Salem Khamis Al Shair Al Suwaidi, Deputy Director-General for Information sector and eGovernment at TRA said: "Our objective is to save time, effort and money by introducing better technology to help service providers." The authority has already started test projects to link Emirates ID with government services as plans are underway to make the ID more usable.

"Our aim is to utilise the Emirates ID to unify public services while contributing to making the UAE one of the best countries in the world in terms of e-services," said Salem Khamis.

Plans were also unveiled for an online UAE encyclopaedia in Arabic and English, built on the lines of wiki. Student groups from UAE schools will create, edit and monitor content as part of the UAEpedia project. Government entities will also get linked to a cloud-computing network as information and resource sharing will be made easier.

"We will provide the technical infrastructure for government entities while allowing them to concentrate on their core service areas," said Salem.

The new initiatives and decision come in line with the directives issued by the Cabinet in February this year. His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, emphasised that the shift to e-services would boost UAE's socio-economic level in a timeframe of two years. A total of 38 new projects worth Dh150 million were announced as part of the Federal e-Government Strategy of 2012-2014.