Mirroring attractive enablers for investors in the business sector, Training courses for cadres in the business sector on MoFAIC’s e-link system for attestations (eDAS)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MoFAIC) is launching a comprehensive integrated attestation system with various stakeholders in the UAE to improve customer experience. This new system will enhance and facilitate business within a series of changes, including digital transformation, that align UAE government policies.  

The system aims to organize and facilitate some business and trade procedures. As one of the smart government systems, it will also enhance the seamless data exchange between authorities to better serve the customer as a one stop shop for the different services from various entities. 

His Excellency Faisal Eissa Lutfi, Assistant Undersecretary for Consular Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, said: “The new system, dubbed eDAS (Electronic Digital Attestation System), contributes to improving the UAE’s ranking and score in the ease of doing business indicator through the overall automation of services. The Ministry works on setting new parameters for the attestation service provided to customers, entrepreneurs and companies. This will facilitate their tasks and raise the quality of service in line with their business requirements. The key partners for the first and second phase of the system are: the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology and the Central Bank. As phase three comes in, the Federal Authority for Identity and Nationality, Customs and Ports Security and local customs departments will be key partners as well”.

His Excellency added: "As a smart government initiative, the system aims to organize and facilitate trade-related procedures as well as the seamless data exchange between the entities' systems. The customer will have a one stop shop without the need to visit multiple government smart services to complete the attestation service.”

The system uses artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce transaction time to 3 minutes provided that all conditions are met. The rate of human intervention is limited to 2% when needed. It then provides the customer with an attested copy certified with an electronic stamp: a QR code.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has processed more than 200,000 transactions through the system since the launch of the phase 1 on April 27, 2022. It expects to process 500,000 transactions through the system by February 2023.

In preparing for the next phase of the project, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has trained more than 2,000 employees on using the system. The training was done in collaboration with the Central Bank, Chambers of Commerce and Industry in the country and a number of private sector institutions. The training is crucial to enhance service use and implement relevant decisions that support harmonization, coordination and integration between the concerned authorities. This contributes to improving customer experience and enables the concerned authorities to seamlessly access data from multiple sources, thus providing government services based on the most reliable and up-to-date sources.

In preparation for the system’s comprehensive launch in February 2023, the Ministry invites all concerned institutions in the public sector and in the business, trade and industry sectors to sign up employees who deal with attestations for eDAS training courses organized by the Consular Affairs Sector from December 2022 to January 2023 by contacting MoFAIC on 065068888.