Page 88 - SAMENA Trends - September-October 2022

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Bahrain, Saudi Arabia Discuss Cooperation in IT, ID Card

Bahrain’s Information & eGovernment bin Ali Al Harbi. The Kingdom of Bahrain range of other items, including methods to
Authority (iGA) recently held a meeting with eKey service and system experience was accelerate the integration of Bahrain’s and
the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence shared in the meeting along with iGA’s Saudi Arabia’s ID verification systems with
Authority (SDAIA) and the Secretariat efforts to continuously develop eservices, each other as per a previous agreement,
General of the GCC to follow up on directives channels and projects noting the support which stipulated that this project was to
by the GCC Smart Card Technical Team of the Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. Shaikh be the first phase of a larger Secretariat
and discuss cooperation in IT. The meeting Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa. Dr. General plan to connect the systems of all
was in line with GCC efforts to implement AlKhajah revealed that the eKey’s Basic GCC countries. Benefits of integrating the
the initiatives of the General Secretariat’s and Advanced versions are being used systems were also discussed, including
Economic and Development Affairs, which by over 611,000 beneficiaries to access allowing Bahraini citizens to access Saudi
aim to promote technical integration among more than 153 eServices available via Arabia’s Unified National Platform my.gov.
Gulf countries. The iGA team was led by the National Portal, Bahrain.bh. Multi- sa using the same eKey usernames and
Deputy CE of Electronic Transformation, Factor Authentication (MFA), further passwords they use in Bahrain without the
Dr Zakariya AlKhajah and Saudi’s team by improvements to the eKey system, and need to create new accounts when visiting
Director of Public Security and head of the a facility for eSignatures are all currently Saudi Arabia. The same will apply to Saudi
GCC integration team, Brigadier Hamad under consideration. The agenda covered a citizens, who will be able to use their Identity
Authentication system to access bahrain.
bh. This will streamline commercial and
investment procedures between the two
countries, allowing users to carry out online
transactions using a digital ID, without
the need for Bahraini investors to visit
Saudi Arabia or vice versa. Dr. AlKhajah
highlighted Bahrain’s commitment towards
implementing and supporting ambitious
digital initiatives towards comprehensive
electronic integration between the GCC
countries.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar Discusses Promotion of Growth of Digital Economy

Minister of Communications and
Information Technology Eng. Abdullah
Bin Amer Al-Sawaha met with Minister
of Communications and Information
Technology and President of
Communication Regulatory Authority of the
State of Qatar Eng. Mohammed Al-Mannai.
Prince Mansour Bin Khalid Bin Farhan,
Saudi Ambassador to the State of Qatar,
too attended the meeting. The meeting
comes within the framework of the visit
of the delegation of the Communications,
Technology and Information System to
Qatar. The visit aims to open new horizons
and cooperation between the two countries
in the field of technology and innovation,
and activate the role of the region in the
field of the digital economy. During his
meeting with his Qatari counterpart, Eng. the two brotherly countries in the fields activating the initiatives included in the
Al-Sawaha discussed the importance of supporting the growth of the digital Saudi-Qatari Coordination Council.
of activating the partnership between economy and innovation, in addition to

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