helping them to communicate live with the follow-up office if the need arises. 11. The service was launched on the Ministry’s website and the Ministry’s smart phone application, “Wejhati”. The number of users of this service reached (8,351) users. Among these requests, only (728) services were transferred to the follow-up office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for assistance, while the other requests received the adequate answers and the required assistance through the virtual assistant, without the need to transfer them to the follow-up office. 12. The Ministry has also transformed consular procedures at the missions and consulates of the Kingdom of Bahrain abroad electronically to provide a number of electronic services and exchange such among the missions and the consular services sector in the Ministry to facilitate and expedite work and serve the public. 13. Visa issuance procedures have been facilitated for holders of diplomatic and special passports by creating a page to issue a letter to facilitate visa issuance procedures to automate the issuance of letters and support ease of search (findability) to be referenced whenever needed. 14. A joint committee was formed between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Health to follow up on health emergencies of citizens abroad to promptly consider and treat. An annual amount of (200,000) dinars was approved to cover emergency treatment costs pursuant to the decision of the Ministerial Committee for Financial Affairs and Rationalizing Expenditure. 15. A joint working group was also formed between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Interior regarding the renewal of passports, identity cards, driver’s licenses for citizens, and certificates of good conduct outside the Kingdom. The Ministry explained that work is underway to adopt and implement updated mechanisms for the Ministry of Interior’s services provided in the embassies abroad. 16. The Ministry’s reply included a report on public outreach through communication channels available to the public and affiliated with the communication sector in the Ministry during the period (2020-2021). The total number of responses amounted to (1,875) responses, as follows:  (195) responses through Instagram  (40) responses through Twitter Ninth Annual Report of the NIHR 76