Dubai: By next year, residents will no longer have to carry their ID card as it will be accessed via their mobile phone.
A road map set to transform e-governments into Smart Governments was launched on Wednesday during the last day of the Government Summit — an initiative that will ease the daily lives of citizens by May 2015.
“We will collaborate with the Emirates Identity Authority, du, etisalat, the Cabinet Office and the Central Bank, among many others, so that all their services will be available on people’s mobile phones,” said Hamad Al Mansouri, Deputy Director-General of Information and e-Government, Telecommunications and Regulatory Authority.
“You will then be able to use your mobile phone as your ID and credit card,” he said.
The new road map places an emphasis on mobile phones, as it has become a powerful tool which citizens use in their daily lives to make payments, access email, and book airline tickets.
Al Mansouri explained that the federal government will train more than 2,000 employees from the seven emirates in order to have an efficient workforce when building a digital identity.
“A smart government is the new way in developing governments and, as society is changing, the government has to be in synergy with their expectations,” said Mohammad Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs.
The four tracks to the Road Map involve establishing the environment for mGovernments to flourish, assessing the capability of government entities, establishing shared resources across government entities at the national level, and achieving citizen happiness.
“The number of services is in the thousands but we have identified the top 100 services based on customer demand, and found that 80 per cent of customers use 20 per cent of online government services,” said Hessa Bu Humaidah, Executive Director of Government Services, Prime Minister’s Office.
