Bahrain is set to be the first Gulf country to allow GCC nationals to complete all official procedures - whether governmental and non-governmental - using only their identity smart cards.

Other GCC countries are expected to follow suit, Minister of State for Parliament and Shura Council Affairs Abdulaziz Al Fadhel told Shura Council members during their weekly session yesterday (December 3), according to a report published in our sister newspaper the Gulf Daily News.

The bill has been passed by the council just two weeks after it was approved by parliament and will now be ratified by His Majesty King Hamad.

An Interior Ministry representative said all GCC countries would have to do the same within a year, while a Central Informatics Organisation (CIO) official said programming firms had already been contracted to design the required software. – TradeArabia News Service