Social security scheme for residents

Dubai: The more than five million population in the UAE will be brought under a social security scheme as the Emirates Identity Authority (EIA) strengthens the ID card scheme, a top official said.

Click here to see the Gitex event details (pdf)

The registration process for this will begin once the extended amnesty period ends in November.

Once completed, the scheme will function like the US Green Card for expatriates and will remain in the country's database in case the employee returns to the country with a new job after a while.

"Once implemented fully, each resident and UAE national will be a 'number' to us and the information will be stored in the database for all government and non-government services," Darwish Ahmad Al Zarouni, EIA's director-general told Gulf News at the Gitex 2007, where EIA is showcasing its services.

EIA is an independent federal authority established by the Federal Decree No 2 of 2004, empowering the EIA with the ultimate control required for the execution of Population Register project and the new Identity Card.

Integration

Currently details of all the residents, including the individuals' passport, visa and employment lies with the respective immigration departments of all the emirates - which is expected to be integrated with the EIA database.

"This will be the social security number of the individuals and will determine the identity for any services, including residency, labour, social security, immigration and healthcare," he said.

"The ID card will replace all other card one possesses, including the labour card and the e-gate cards and will be linked to the country's immigration, labour, healthcare, law enforcing agencies."

He said, all other cards will become redundant once the new ID card project is being implemented.

"So far, we have registered 200,000 people - all nationals and brought them into the national database," he said.

"In January, we are going to launch a major registration campaign through the government departments and large corporations to include their officials and workers in to the database."

This, he said, will be followed by the smaller companies.

Once implemented, by 2010 all labour cards will be made redundant and the ID card will be the only reference for all government services. Photocopy of passports won't be needed for every process in the UAE. Currently photocopies of passport or the labour cards are the only two documents used to establish the identity of an individual.

"By 2010, everyone will be included in the database and will be issued the ID card that will gradually make all other cards redundant," he said.

However, some of those measures will be determined later on.

This is a good system and should be implemented in full.
Jayaraman
Dubai,UAE
Posted: September 09, 2007, 07:12