PH national ID system draws Estonian interest
Credit to Author: MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO, TMT| Date: Thu, 04 Apr 2019 16:18:08 +0000
Firms from Estonia, one of the world’s most developed digital societies, have expressed interest to take part in the development of the country’s national identification (ID) system, the Finance department said on Thursday.
“We are aware that the Philippines is about to implement the digital ID and provide their citizens with this,” Estonia’s ambassador-designate to the Philippines Vaino Reinart was quoted as saying during a recent meeting with Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd.
“It is indeed a good time to come here and demonstrate what you could possibly be able to implement provided the digital ID is properly secured in place,” Reinart added.
Dominguez, for his part, welcomed Estonia’s interest in the Philippines and invited Estonian companies to participate in the bidding for the national ID system contract. “Our number one interest right now is the national ID, and we are going to be putting out the international tender documents pretty soon,” he said.
The Finance chief said the Asian Development Bank (ADB) was assisting the Philippine government through a policy-based loan program to provide support for the implementation of the national ID system.
The national ID system was mandated under the Republic Act 11055 or the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) Act, which was signed into law on August 6 last year. The PhilSys provides for a national identification system that seeks to unify all government IDs into one. It will provide identification to both citizens and resident aliens of the country to facilitate public and private transactions.
Earlier, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said the government is on track on the roll out of the National ID, with mass registration expected next year.
“We are on-track as regards the roll-out of PhilSys. We hope to open up registration to targeted communities and release the first batch of IDs late this year. By 2020, we expect the registration system to be more established allowing for more Filipinos to avail of the service,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto said in a recent statement.
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