Biometrics Technology and the New Economy: A Review of the Field and the Case of the United Arab Emirates <s> Emerging Roles of Governments <s> There is accumulating evidence that governments are sources of powerful forces influencing the development of new industries. Yet, governments, as a valid and powerful context influencing the digital economy creation, have been consistently neglected by researchers. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on how governments enable digital economy creation in transitioning economies. My research questions are: how do governments in transitioning economies facilitate the digital economy creation? What are the influences of these governments' involvement in digital economy? To address these research questions, we derive a research model by drawing upon institutional and economic history theories. This model will be tested by data collected in a case study on China's Golden Card Project, one of Chinese government's first e-government projects. Possible contributions and implications of this study are discussed. <s> BIB001 </s> Biometrics Technology and the New Economy: A Review of the Field and the Case of the United Arab Emirates <s> Emerging Roles of Governments <s> This article provides an overview of current international e-Government practices and the role of the national identity management infrastructure program in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in supporting e-Government development. It describes the benefits of e-Government that various governments worldwide have identified, sheds light on some recent surveys on the delivery of eGovernment by some countries, highlights some examples and puts the position of the United Arab Emirates into context. It then discusses the program's use of Identity Management in the strategic initiatives, explains their purpose in the facilitation of e-Government within the United Arab Emirates and describes a general roadmap for implementation. <s> BIB002
The globalisation and the rapid pace of development in information and communication technologies are redefining the nature of governments and their relationship with citizens  . With such developments, public services are challenged to re-invent the government in the digital economy. This necessitates re-thinking the way governments have been dealing with citizens and business, re-engineering their work processes and as well as enabling greater cross-agency collaboration to deliver services in a way which the public appreciates  . As such, identity management is a critical success factor to enable such transformation. Robust identity management infrastructure is envisaged to enable digital economy, with identification and authentication systems that people can live with, trust and use (Stevens et al., 2010) . There is accumulating evidence that governments are sources of powerful forces influencing the development of new industries BIB001 ). Yet, governments, as a valid and powerful context have the potential to influence the digital economy creation (ibid). Existing literature argue that there is enough indication that due to network externality effects, governments need to take an active role in stimulating an e-environment to jump-start the move toward a higher level of e-readiness. De  allege that governments can play an important role in at least four areas: (1) stimulating the enhancement of the infrastructure that enable e-society; (2) investing in improved services (e-government); (3) stimulating an e-friendly business environment; and (4) creating an all-inclusive information society. He further elaborates that for an eenvironment to exist, a basic ICT infrastructure need to be put in place in order to reach out to citizens and to provide a robust network over which business can operate. The literature in general, widely disagrees with the concept of dependence on the private sector to build such infrastructure all alone, and believe that if it did, it will produce inept and hurdled efforts that will be insufficient to gain social acceptance and trust  BIB002  . Apparently, biometrics offer tremendous opportunities to create new value, and to provide instant knowledge and processing capability to make quantum leaps in identity management and service delivery  . Governments are therefore assuming new roles to build trust in online identities in order to improve electronic delivery of government and business services. This confidence is seen to encourage innovation in the online marketplace and foster the growth of the new digital economy. Networks are a key component of this new society, as illustrated by the rise of mobile phones, email, and social networking websites, yet the networks in the digital world are constantly changing  . Governments have for long been responsible to develop methods for physical identification of identities. In today's world, governments 3 are recognizing that their boundaries of responsibilities need to expand and include virtual and digital networks revolutionise and/or create new business and social paradigms.