The Day two of Biometric MENA Summit 2021 started with opening remarks from the Managing Director at Verve Management, Sabah Parvez and was followed by a welcoming note by none other than the Group COO, National Medical Center, Dr. Mohammad Junaid who was the Chairperson of the day.
Dr. Hamad Khalifa, Telecommunications specialist, Abu Dhabi Police – UAE shared his expertise on smart and safe settings in biometric challenges. Dr. Hamad stated that the government and private sectors have shifted their focus to the cloud and digital transformation. He mentioned that biometrics is important in all sectors and industries and not just limited to central banks and banking industry. Dr. Hamad further spoke on how the International Airports in UAE are using face recognition and Emirates ID which allows people to go through without waiting in line for immigration. He also said that social media is a good platform to acquire data of any person.
Mr. Mohammad Junaid, Group COO from National Medical Centre – Saudi moderated a panel discussion which involved esteemed speakers like Mr. Jaleel Rahiman from Prime Healthcare Group, Mr. Shuvankumar Pramanick from Columbia Asia Hospitals Pvt. Ltd and Mr. Muhammad Shahid Iqbal Khan from International Medical Center. The panellists talked about the benefits of biometrics and how biometrics are the future of patient care. Mr. Jaleel spoke about UAE Pass which is a combination of Emirates ID and Biometrics and how it can be used to avoid duplication of patient files. The panellists agreed that the quality of patient care is determined by the quality of the infrastructure. Passwords are difficult to remember so biometric authenticator can be used by the patient for logging in.
Dr. Hamad Khalifa from Abu Dhabi Police and Mr. Mohamad Al Agha from Abu Dhabi Ports Company discussed about innovation in law enforcement and travel tourism and how biometrics are driving efficiency in modern policing. Dr. Hamad explained the meaning of the word Biometrics, Bio in Greek language means “Life” and metric means “Measurement”. He stated that without biometrics the law enforcement won’t be as successful as it is today. Mr. Mohamad started by saying that biometrics as a technology is impacting a lot of industries and travel industry is one of them. Travel is a regulated industry. He also mentioned how smart gates have evolved the process of crossing borders and most of the passports nowadays are biometrics enabled.
Mr. Ramzi Saboury, General Manager, MENA – ZWIPE – Lebanon gave a presentation on how Zwipe Strategy in MENA is paving the way for the era of next-gen biometric payment. Mr. Ramzi stated that Zwipe has the latest generation biometric card. He also said that Zwipe’s role is to enable ecosystems, raise awareness and interact with the stake holders. He was very confident on how Zwipe stores customer data only on the chip of the card and it is not stored on clouds or anywhere else. If the card is cancelled for any reason, then all the customer data will be permanently erased and there won’t be any record of the data. Zwipe wants to focus on MENA region because of the diversified markets and emerging markets for innovation.
Mr. Ahmad Ibrahim, Head of Product Engineering, Ascertia shared his expertise on qualified electronic signatures without in-person identity proofing using biometrics with face verification. Mr. Ahmad talked about the journey towards the rollout of qualified electronic signatures. A qualified electronic signature is a type of electronic signature providing the highest level of assurance from a legal perspective. He explained why identity proofing for qualified electronic signature is essential. The identity proofing process is used to confirm personal identity attributes of the applicant, It is generally based on the collection, validation and verification of evidence.
