Following the previous editions in Berlin and Rome (2005), Paris and Milan (2006), Istanbul and Milan (2007) the seventh summit on government-driven citizen ID programs opened its doors in the United Arab Emirates building on the wealth of experience of Wise Media's Electronic Passport Forum and Citizen ID Forum initiatives. The event took place with the endorsement of the European Commission, Emirates Identity Authority and Abu Dhabi Police.

Once again the event substantiated the fact that it is the platform of choice for experts from government, border control and law enforcement, as well as technology vendors, to discuss and learn more about the key issues relating to the introduction of digital citizen identity credentials worldwide. Among the highlights of the event, a panel of GCC government representatives focused on the significant efforts made by the public authorities in the Middle East to promote and encourage the use of ICT in the government and public sectors in the Arab world.

H.E. Eng. Sultan Saeed Nasser Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy UAE:
"The Citizen ID Forum highlights how the objectives that governments strive to meet via the digitalization of ID documents go far beyond homeland security. They are much more related to creating a means of delivering better services to both national and non-national residents."

The Citizen ID Forum welcomed an array of world-class panelists to review the status of the progressive digitalization of Passports, as well as National IDs, Driver's Licenses, Health Cards, Resident Permit Cards and Visas worldwide. These included representatives of the UAE Ministry of Interior, the UAE Minister of Economy, the Saudi Arabian National Information Center, the Egyptian Civil Service Organization, the Royal Oman Police, Qatar's Ministry of Interior, Abu Dhabi Police, the Emirates Identity Authority, the Saudi Arabian Council of Cooperative Health Insurance, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, the British Forensic Science Service, Pakistan's National Database & Registration Authority, the European Commission, the German Federal Ministry of the Interior and the US Department of Homeland Security

The Citizen ID Forum was sponsored by EDAPS Consortium, Sagem Sécurité, Thales and Emirates Bank.

The valuable discussions that took place in Abu Dhabi will continue at the Citizen ID Forum conference at the ID WORLD International Congress, the annual world summit on automatic identification, in Milan on November 18-20, 2008.