- Initiative is aimed at reducing operating costs
The Emirates Identity Authority (Emirates ID) has held discussions with the German company, Bundesdruckerei GmbH, on co-operating in the field of manufacturing and supplying raw ID card materials with high security specifications. Bundesdruckerei GmbH is one of the leading participants in the tender launched recently by Emirates ID for supplying ID cards and manufacturing them locally.
The Emirates Identity Authority is looking at reducing operating costs, particularly due to the increasing daily production of printed ID cards. According to preliminary estimates, the initiative is slated to save AED100 million over the coming five years and create tens of new job opportunities for UAE nationals.
The state-owned Bundescruckerei GmBH was established in 1763 and specialises in producing security documents such as ID cards, passports and driving licenses for many countries including Germany, United Kingdom and other countries of the European Union in addition to China, Peru and Venezuela. The company is regarded as the world’s largest producer of banknotes, not to mention that it is the supplier of passports and new e-Passport in the UAE.
Meanwhile, Emirates ID has reviewed the experience of European countries in interoperability, which allows automated systems in European Union member states to interact and share data electronically and work together without the users of these systems having to put in any extra effort to get the service from these systems.
This was announced during a meeting held recently with an official European delegation at the Emirates ID headquarters in Abu Dhabi. The meeting, which was chaired by His Excellency Dr Engineer Ali Mohamed Al Khouri, Director General of the Authority, reviewed the rules and regulations issued recently by the European Union as regards electronic identity and electronic verification.
The meeting aimed at learning from the European experience for implementing similar projects that are currently being developed at the UAE and GCC levels to introduce smart ID cards and applications. Emirates ID is co-ordinating with the authorities concerned with GCC ID card projects to form a general framework and develop the concept of interoperability and joint work with these countries on digital ID applications.
Emirates ID has launched an electronic linkage project to link the systems and databases of six federal entities (Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Ministry of Justice) and local entities with the Population Register. The electronic linkage will allow to automatic and simultaneous updating of a person’s civil record in each of these entities while ensuring accuracy, security and confidentiality of data.
Emirates ID will expand the scope of the project after ensuring interoperability with the organisations dealing with the data in the individual’s civil record – which include but are not limited to birth, marriage, divorce, death, education and health register – in order to cover other related UAE entities.
