Eida website has languages of your choice

Abu Dhabi — The Emirates Identity Authority (Eida) is to add five more languages — Urdu, Malayalam, Tagalog, Russian and Mandarin — to its website, offering information and guidance on procedures. This is in addition to the two languages already in place — Arabic and English.

Abdulaziz Al Maamari, Director of Government and Social Communication at the Emirates ID, said the move was part of the authority’s efforts to make its services easier and more accessible to the various nationalities residing in the country.

The decision is based on the numbers and types of visitors to the ID website, the departments and services most frequently browsed and the queries and clarifications most sought, as surveys show.

Al Maamari said the new languages would allow customers to find out in their own languages the procedures for registration in the population register, issuance, renewal and replacement of ID cards, necessary documents for getting the services rendered and the fee for each service.

“The idea behind the initiative is to make our website and services more accessible and customer-friendly.

“There are a large numbers of people who are not proficient in Arabic and English and we thought it was important to reach out to these segments in languages they are comfortable with,” Al Maamari pointed out.

An official source at the Emirates ID authority told Khaleej Times that the move followed a recent voting in which the public were asked to vote for adding a third language to the ID website besides Arabic and English.

The expatriate community welcomed the EIDA move as it would help them get all information with just a click instead of visiting typing centres. “It is a smart move. It helps us and the authority reduce paperwork. Now if I need any information regarding the identity card, I can simply visit their website and click the Urdu language icon and get what I want,” said Awais Ahmed from Pakistan.

Though Malayalees from India’s southern state of Kerala form the single largest expatriate community in the UAE, Urdu is largely spoken by all the Asians, including Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans, and even by Arabs and Iranians.

Official figures show that 54.44 percent of the total 314,074 respondents to the poll posted online or 170,973 voted for Urdu, followed by Malayalam which was favoured by 44.3 per cent or 139,141 residents.

As for Mandarin and Tagalog, which came third and fourth, they were supported by 2,306 or 0.73 per cent and 1,654 or 0.53 per cent respectively.

news@khaleejtimes.com