The Council of Arab Economic Unity signs an agreement with IDEMIA for security solutions

The Council of Arab Economic Unity of the League of Arab States signed a cooperation agreement with the international organization IDEMIA, specialized in the field of security solutions and digital identity systems. With the aim of supporting and implementing a number of strategic and vital projects in Arab countries, this partnership will contribute to improving the competitiveness of Arab economies and enhancing their integration into the global economy.

IDEMIA is one of the leading institutions in the field of advanced security systems, operating in more than 180 countries, and the European Union is one of the most prominent contributors to it.

The agreement comes after the Executive Council’s “Arab Vision for the Digital Economy”, which was announced in Abu Dhabi at the end of 2018. The agreement is to support cooperation between the two sides across several initiatives stipulated by the Arab Vision in areas of digital transformation including: digital identity services, e-government, e-commerce, banking services, and advanced biometric security systems.

The total value of the projects targeted for implementation is estimated at 200 million US dollars. It is expected that these projects will have a significant economic return in support of innovation, digital business models and environments in the governmental and private sectors in the countries of the region.

It is worth noting that the Arab League and the Council of Arab Economic Unity had announced a qualitative initiative in December of 2018, when the Arab vision for the digital economy was launched from Abu Dhabi. The strategy included 5 main pillars and 20 strategic objectives, and more than 50 programs emerged from it based on the development of infrastructure, support for innovation and digital government transformation, an empowered private sector, and enhanced services aimed at Arab citizens.

The importance of the “Arab Vision” lies in the fact that it calls for rebuilding and developing the economic systems in the Arab region on sustainable development foundations, making use of the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and supporting joint action efforts to promote and develop the digital economy in the Arab world.

Harvard University, Cairo University, international organizations, and experts from the United Nations, World Bank, International Economic Cooperation Organization, and the European Union participated in preparing and developing the Arab vision for the digital economy.