The Ministry of Interior is to launch a new mobile telephone text message service to keep the public up-to-date on the status of official documents such as identity cards, passports, driving licenses and residency permits. The free-of-charge service, which will initially be introduced in Arabic and English with options for other languages later “if deemed necessary”, will be run via the ministry's National Information Center in collaboration with Civil Affairs, Traffic Police and the Passports Department. The system will register any changes to data on individuals' records and automatically inform them through interactive messages of pending traffic fines, approaching expiry dates of documents, lost document reports, and requests to update home addresses. It will also inform the public of when documents are ready to be received from government offices. The ministry, which has not yet specified a date for the launch of the service, has said it is currently working with its various sectors to identify all the services each one is to provide to the system.
