Bahrain’s Information & e-Government Authority (iGA) and the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) along with the Secretariat General of the GCC discussed and followed up with regards to the GCC Smart Card Technical Team and discuss cooperation in IT.
Discussions are part of the GCC efforts to promote technical integration among Gulf countries.
The meeting was led by both, the Deputy CEO of the Electronic Transformation at IGA Dr Zakariya AlKhajah and Saudi’s Director of Public Security and head of the GCC integration team, Brigadier Hamad bin Ali Al Harbi. AlKhajah showcased the experience of Bahrain’s eKey service and system and how it is currently being used by over 611,000 beneficiaries giving them access to 153 eservices.
Bahrain is considering the inclusion of multi-factor authentication (MFA), and facilitation of eSignatures.
Conversations also included the acceleration of integration of Bahrain’s and Saudi Arabia’s ID verification systems, a project that would be the first phase of a larger Secretariat General plan to connect the systems of all GCC countries.
The benefits of an integrated system include allowing Bahraini and KSA citizens to access each others national platforms when visiting their respective countries.
Bahrain citizens would be able to use Saudi Arabia’s Unified National Platform my.gov.sa using the same eKey usernames and passwords they use in Bahrain without the need to create new accounts when visiting Saudi Arabia. The same would apply to Saudi citizens in Bahrain. Saudi citizens would be able to use their Identity Authentication system to access bahrain.bh.
This would help 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.
