ABU DHABI (WAM)
The Director-General of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA), Majed Sultan Al Mesmar, revealed that the UAE digital identity (UAE Pass) achieved an impressive milestone of 7.2 million users in 2023.
The national digital platform, which facilitates users' access to services without the need for submitting documents or signing papers, recorded a 57 percent increase from 4.6 million in 2022.
The figure is expected to increase further in 2024 considering that the UAE Pass has established links with private sector institutions, which means users could register to access services.
Al Mesmar noted that the UAE Pass enables 35 types of trusted digital documents and has so far issued up to 8.8 million trusted digital documents for users. He added that the digital verification platform allows users to verify their documents online to ensure their reliability, a process which has been used for over 230,000 documents.
"With the launch of the new version of the portal and meeting the United Nations' requirements for providing information and engaging users in service design, the number of portal users has increased from one and a half million annually in 2017 to approximately 17.5 million users in 2023. The number of views increased from 3.7 million to 41.6 million views, and the number of visits increased from 2 million to 27.3 million visits," he explained.
Al Mesmar continued stating, "In a qualitative leap within the journey of the official portal, the authority recently deployed Generative AI technology through the 'Ask Us' service, or (U-Ask), available in several languages. It provides accurate information to users about all the services and policies they are looking for on the portal. This service represents the first phase of a multi-stage project to deploy artificial intelligence to enhance efficiency, improve user experience, and increase satisfaction."
According to Al Mesmar, the UAE is focusing on enhancing its digital infrastructure to lead in digital transformation, emphasising government-integrated shared services for user-centric operations with the latest technologies.
He pointed out that the successful 2023 digital parliamentary elections showcased the country's progress in digitalisation, with a robust digital voting system and infrastructure managed by the Smart Systems Committee in collaboration with government and technology partners.
Al Mesmar mentioned that theseelections reported a high turnout of 92.69 percent for remote voting through online platforms; a significant increase in voter participation from outside the country and a reduction in operational costs and voting time.
The 2023 elections was a unique fully digital electoral experience on a global scale, leveraging the UAE's high internet usage rate of 99 percent.