The General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai (GDRFA-Dubai) will lunch 30 new smart services soon, after having unveiled a package of 28 smart services in the first stage which can accessed on smartphones and tablets.

The director general of GDRFA-Dubai Major General Mohammed Al Marri said: “The move is aimed to make government services available on smartphones and tablets, so that customers can manage their applications round the clock anywhere.”

In his message, published in the August issue of Manafez Dubai, the official bilingual newsletter of GDRFA-Dubai, Major General Al Marri assured that while the new Smart services help customers submit their applications and follow up as conveniently and as fast as possible; yet security or privacy rules have not been compromised.

He said: “When we talk about information we simultaneously take into account the privacy and confidentiality with no room for manipulation and unauthorized use. We have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to privacy, which is an integral part of our traditions, principles, values and religious believes.”

He also announced that the first half of 2014 saw a 30 per cent increase in the number of residency visas issued compared with the same period in 2013. There were 570,917 new residency visas issued in the first half of 2014, up from 436,993 issued in 2013.

He said that the country has also seen an 8.14 per cent increase in passengers entering and exiting the UAE which reflects the growth in the country’s economy and tourism sector. In the first half of 2014, 21,865,088 passengers entered and exited the country, compared with 20,219,288 in the first half of 2013.

“We anticipated those increases and we increased the number and trained our employees. We also developed the e-Gate counters to make the process of entering the country smoother,” he said at a Press conference organized to announce the launch of Smart initiatives by the GDRFA-Dubai.

Major General Al Marri said, “Overall, the GDRFA completed 31,032,662 applications in 2014, which is 8.88 per cent more than 2013.”

He added that there was a decrease in the number of reports of absconding domestic workers which, he said, was because of awareness campaigns that the directorate ran on social media. There were 14,150 complaints last year compared to 14,741 in 2012.

In his message to the newsletter, Major General Obaid Moheir bin Suroor, deputy director general of GDRFA-Dubai, said: “We believe that the security challenges faced by borders control authorities all over the world are similar and intertwined and unless we stand firm shoulder to shoulder, loopholes and shortcomings will be utilized by the organized criminal gangs, smugglers, human traffickers and all sorts of law-breakers to pass safely. International cooperation has been a great source of knowledge to develop our policies, systems and procedures.”

In an exclusive interview with Manafez Dubai, Captain Khalid Ahmad bin Mediya Al Falasi, assistant director general of Smart Services Sector at GDRFA-Dubai, said that the GDRFA-Dubai aims to enlist half-a-million people annually for its Smart services applications over the next six years.

He explained a total of 58 out of 97 services delivered by GDRFA-Dubai will be Smart by the end of the second stage.

Statistics suggest that the number of clients enlisted in Smart services applications reached 1,100 until July 13. About 5,679 applications were downloaded between June 20 and July 13.

The newsletter also focuses on the new models for travel and tourism which propose a fully integrated Smart Travel model designed to unlock growth and job creation in the travel and tourism industry.

Manafez Dubai also depicts an infograph illustrating how smart gates, developed, manufactured and operated by emaratech, GDRFA’s strategic partner, are used to speed-up travellers through passport control in only 15 seconds.

Registration for using smart gates is available at departure and arrival halls at Terminals 1 and 3 at the Dubai International Airport. It is also available at GRDFA, Emirates Airlines and dnata headquarters. – TradeArabia News Service