“Identity” in 2017; New Powers, a More Comprehensive Role and a Broader Scope of Tasks

The Federal Decree No. “3” of 2017, issued to amend the Federal Law No. “2” of 2004 for establishing Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA) transferred to become the “Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship (ICA)”, formed the prominent event for ICA in 2017 and formed also the largest turning point in its history since its establishment in 2004. This matter turned it into new horizons in the fields of working and giving as well as bearing responsibilities for contributing more effectively to the success of governmental transformation, in addition to supporting the decision-making, especially in the field of population and demographic data.

The decree, by which all competences and powers of the Ministry of Interior relating to citizenship, passports, entry, and residence of foreigners to the country, contained in the applicable laws, regulations, and decisions are transferred to ICA. This matter in turn adds new tasks, assumes new responsibilities, and moves it to a new stage, more comprehensive role, and more extensive horizons in terms of the tasks assigned to it and the objectives required to be achieved by it. This matter also opens up new horizons for ICA to participate actively in developing the system of government services and contributing to enhancing the UAE security and economy, based on a demographic database, which is deemed as the largest and most comprehensive database on which it can be relied in conducting thorough and

accurate studies of various initiatives, projects, and services adopted and launched by various authorities in the country.

ICA has initiated, as of the first day on which the decree is issued, to form the working teams and competent committees that implement its articles so that each team and committee will in turn develop its vision and plan in its competent field, thus concluding an integrated plan to ensure the smooth completion of implementation process without any obstacles and within the deadline of six months outlined in the decree as this deadline may be extended for a similar period of time.

Issuance of 4.5 Million Cards by the End of September

In the field of ID card services provided by ICA to various categories of customers; the number of cards being printed since the beginning of the current year until the end of last September reached 4,000,552.406 (Four Million Five Hundred Fifty-Two Thousand Four Hundred Six) cards of which 1,000,200.598 (One Million Two Hundred Thousand Five Hundred Ninety-Eight) cards have been issued for the first time and 3,000,311.670 (Three Million Three Hundred Eleven Thousand Six Hundred Seventy) cards have been renewed, while the number of cards issued by ICA as a replacement of lost or damaged cards reached 40,000.138 (Forty Thousand One Hundred Thirty-Eight) cards.

ICA continued the implementation of its projects to develop the applications of ID cards and their electronic features to facilitate the completion and upgrading of customer services as well as focusing on the accuracy of data in the population registry system and also focusing on the strategic projects implemented by it; foremost of which is the “Electronic Connection Project” and “ Validation Gateway”.

Five-Year Strategic Plan

To build upon its experience in the field of strategic planning and its development, ICA launched at the beginning of this year its five-year strategic plan for the years 2017-2021 to be inconsistent with the UAE Vision 2021; with a vision of “a reliable personal identity” and a mission of “managing and operating a population registry and personal identity verification”. This matter is also done by the best standards of efficiency and quality thus ensuring maintaining the modernity of the population registry system, its contemporaries, and the accuracy of data contained therein.

By ICA’s strategy for the years 2017-2021; it adopted the following four objectives: managing and operating the population registry, validating the personal identity, activating and expanding the uses of ID cards as a major reference in various sectors in the country, hence it enhances the happiness of customers and the smart transformation of authorities. This matter also ensures the provision of all administrative services by the standards of quality, efficiency, and transparency, in addition to establishing a culture of innovation in the organizational work environment.

“Identity Card” is deemed as an Enabler for Smart Services

ICA continued in 2017 to strive to provide all possible means to facilitate the use of and benefit from smart card applications used by the government authorities and private companies. This card has become the most important card used in the lives of citizens and residents. It also has exclusively become, among other basic supporting documents, the basic enabler for 90% of smart services offered by many government authorities as declared by UAE Smart Government.

The list of those authorities that achieved this percentage relating to their smart services has included the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, both Ministries of Culture and Knowledge Development, Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, Smart Dubai Government (SDG), Emirates Post Group, Sheikh Zayed Housing Programme and Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship.

Moreover, the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi and Daman Company have announced the integration of health insurance cards with an ID card in which the customer’s health insurance data are recorded which resulted in the dispensing of issuing health insurance cards. Meanwhile, the Central Department of Finance – Sharjah launched its new service to pay various transaction fees to all Emirate’s government authorities by using ID cards.

During this year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation approved the identity card as a basic and mandatory requirement for the employer, representative, and the authorized signatory upon the annual registration or renewal of establishment. Furthermore, the use of ID card contributed to the “Smart Travel” initiative launched by ICA, in cooperation with the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai (DNRD), to enable passengers to travel through Dubai airports to complete their procedures within a maximum period of 15 seconds only.

Transferring to e-dirham system

In the middle of this year, ICA has completed its project to join the second generation of electronic dirham system and stopped accepting cash transactions at all Customer Happiness Centers at the level of the country, so that it relied on both this system and payment done by using credit cards upon collecting the fees received by it in return for the various services provided by it to its customers.

This step supports the ICA’s efforts to apply the highest standards of accuracy, efficiency, and governance in its operations, in addition to enhancing its ability to diversify the channels of services provided by it to the individuals and organizations by adopting the latest digital technology and channels they prefer to use.

Launching 3 Strategic Initiatives for Identity Verification

During this year, the ICA initiated to implement 3 strategic initiatives to verify the identity cards and provide the remote services as some services are provided individually and other services are provided in cooperation with the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), in terms of providing services to customers wherever they are, easily and quickly, without compromising the reliability of transactions. Atop of which comes Smart Pass service which is deemed as a single sign-on service for the UAE Government Services. It also allows anyone holding an ID card to access the government services with one user account and obtain its services using this ID card.

ICA has participated actively in several work teams that were deemed a part of the government accelerator projects that contributed to the success of the challenge of “reducing the duration for the issuance of residence cards in Ajman”. This matter comes in addition to the “Mabrouk Ma Yak” service project which represents an excellent example of cooperation between local and federal country’s organizations which is represented in the completion of transactions of all official documents of newborns of UAE citizens; namely “birth certificate, passport, identity card and additions made in both the family book and population registry.”

In 2017, ICA also launched a project to upgrade the infrastructure of the population registry system, which is based on the use of the technology of Enterprise Service Provider (ESP). It also allows for the servicing authorities to retrieve the customer’s personal data from the population registry by the data security and privacy controls. It is expected to be completed in the first half of 2018. The third initiative is represented in the ID Card Reader Project relating to mobiles and tablets, which focuses on upgrading the ID card reader software so that it can be used in smart applications of mobile phones using the operating system (iOS) and Android. Thus, this project enabled the customer to install the ID Card Reader on its mobile phone and it enabled also the service providers to update their smart applications to be able to read the identity card data by using this the reader, which allows for the customer to prove his identity remotely, reliably and easily, even if he is present outside the country.

Creating a Modern Website that highlights the Waiting Time at the Centers

This year, ICA developed its website and launched its new version which is characterized by providing a distinguished service; namely the waiting time in each center of ICA’s Customer Happiness Centers as well as the nearest one to the customer’s place of presence and also the time it takes to reach it. This matter comes in addition to its innovative designs and its focus on ease of use as well as making it easier, simpler and shorter in terms of the steps which the visitor needs to access the information he is looking for, in addition to focusing on the priority basic services available on the home page and enabling the customer to proceed in the procedures for obtaining them by just a click of a button.

The site focuses also on the services provided by ICA to the individuals and organizations within a single address; including the services provided for the issuance of identity cards, their renewal and replacement as well as applying for exemption from delay fees and providing views and suggestions in addition to the organizational services provided by ICA to both the public sector and private sector. These services include data matching and Validation of Gateway operations.

The features of this new site include the possibility of customizing the specifications as desired by the customer such as changing colors and using the night reading mode, which enables the customer to control the degrees of brightness on the screen that he uses to browse the site according to his option. This matter comes in addition to the efficiency of search tools to provide multiple options for the browser to expect the requirements according to the search word he enters, as well as the voice-to-text conversion feature and its use in searching words by using both the Arabic Language and English Language.

Local and International Awards and Certificates

In appreciation of the approach adopted by ICA in terms of excellence and creativity, ICA won in 2017 several local and international awards. Foremost of which was: the award for the most improved federal authority in the human resources results for the third session of the “Emirates Award for Human Resources in the Federal Government”, in addition to the Excellence Award for Arab Government Achievements 2016-2017, awarded by the Pan Arab Excellence Awards Academy for the services provided by ICA through its digital Validation Gateway.

ICA also continued to retain the ISO certifications obtained during its march, which includes ISO 27001 in the field of Information Security, ISO 14001, and OHSAS 18001 relating to the Occupational and Environmental Health and Safety Management Systems and International Customers Service Standard TISSE 2012, ISO 9001 for the quality management. these awards and certificates are given to it as a result of its constant commitment to the standards adopted by the donors of these certificates and to achieve the specifications that ensure the highest levels of application of measures that meet the conditions for obtaining and retaining these certificates.

Establishing 59 Centers and Offices for Customer Happiness

ICA continued its plan to expand the provision of centers and service outlets throughout the country and develop the existing ones to reach all categories of customers in their places of residence and at their nearest points to provide them with the best services. A total of 59 centers and offices; including 35 major centers and sub-offices and 24 centers attached to the preventive medicine centers with a daily capacity of about 22,000 transactions are opened during this year.

During the current year, ICA continued to monitor the work at its centers and levels of turnout through periodic studies aiming at measuring the levels of needs of various areas in the country to open new centers, move or close old centers due to the weak turnout and a small number of customers. This matter comes within a clear plan and periodic procedures to modernize the distribution of its branches throughout the country to speed up the procedures and shorten the time needed to complete these transactions.