As part of its strategy to support and enhance Arabic content on the Internet, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has announced its plan to launch .emarat (.امارات). This step has been made under the new directions of ICANN, the international corporation responsible for managing the assignment of domain names and IP addresses, which allows the use of languages other than English as an equivalent to the domain names for countries.
“.emarat” is the Arabic equivalent for the currently used domain name “.ae”. The Ministerial Council for Services has previously approved the usage of “.emarat” as a domain name for UAE in Arabic.
In his comments, H.E. Mohamed Naser Al Ghanim, TRA Director General, said: “Our objective is to support Arabic content over the internet and build a strong identity for UAE and Arab countries across the World Wide Web. We encourage all companies and entities in the UAE to register for ‘.ae’ and Name (.امارات) ‘.emarat’ as it represents their local business identity and brings their country pride.”
Using an Arabic domain name would expand the number of Internet users and enhance the Arabic identity of UAE and increase the contribution to the Arabic content available on the Internet. The .ae Domain Administration of TRA has updated its systems to support domain name registration in Arabic.
Mohammed Gheyath, Executive Director, Technology Development Affairs, said: “Our Systems have been upgraded to handle the registration of .emarat, the Arabic domain name of UAE Our goal is to become the first Arab country to introduce an Arabic domain name.”
Gheyath added, “Introducing a new TLD will lead to acquiring several unique web addresses that attracts website owners and Internet users. Moreover, using the Arabic language in internet addresses is a new and unique experience. The launch of registration for the Arabic domain .emarat (.امارات) is expected in the Q2 2010.”
A few days after this press release the UAE business daily Business 24/7 has published an article stating that applications for .emarat will open at the end of April 2010.