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ID cards project set to roll

ABU DHABI — A pilot project to issue national ID cards to nationals and expatriates will commence by end of next month, Dr Saeed Khalfan bin Rakan Al Dhahiri, Director-General, Emirates Identity Authority, said here yesterday.

Speaking to journalists after inauguration of the central operations centre of the authority at the General Directorate of Naturalisation and Residency yesterday, Dr Dhahiri said within the next eight weeks, a pilot project for the national ID card will commence, starting with employees of the ministries of interior and defence.

The centre will act as a conduit to coordinate the operations of the registration and service centres to be set up nationwide. Identity cards will be issued to all nationals and residents by the end of this year under a three-year comprehensive project. The ID card, which has been designed in accordance with international standards, can be used internationally and in the Gulf States, which had agreed to have machine-readable ID cards.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by Col. Ahmed Nasser Al Raisi, Head of the IT Department at the Abu Dhabi Police Headquarters, Dr Eng. Ahmed Ebrahim Al Jarwan, General manager, Property Management, Etisalat, and a number of officials. Etisalat had redeveloped the centre to cope with the technology to be used in the project.

The opening of the centre will be followed by the inauguration of the first registration and service centre for the ID cards near the General Exhibitions Centre in Mushrif. A total of 14 registration centres will be set up across the country in the initial phase.

The Emirates Identity Authority is responsible for producing and issuing the National Identity Card (NIC) to all residents.

The authority is also responsible for registering national and expatriate residents before they are issued the card.

In May last year, the Ministry of Interior, responsible for planning the project, approved the design of the NIC. The ministry has signed a Dh194 million contract with a French IT company, SAGEM SA of France to provide the technology to implement the NIC project.

The company has provided the technology to design and produce smart cards, which will be the single most important identification document for every UAE resident.

The design of the smart card, according to Col. Raisi who is the head of the executing committee for the NIC project, has been finalised and the next phase will be the establishment of the service and registration centres nationwide.