IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

On April 28, President of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambayev discussed with Prime Minister Sooronbai Jeenbekov and Chief of Staff of President's Office Sapar Isakov the start of introduction of electronic biometric passports in Kyrgyzstan, the presidential press office said.

Electronic biometric passport of a citizen of Kyrgyzstan is an identification document of a new type that corresponds to the international standard.

Chairman of the Board of the State Corporation “Government for Citizens” Ablaykhan Ospanov told about the use of biometrics in new developments of the Public Service Centers at the press conference following the Government meeting.

According to him, the biometric parameters of Kazakhstanis, which are provided voluntarily, can replace the digital signature when receiving a number of public services.

Was futurezone.ORF.at bereits vor zwei Jahren berichtete, wird nun Wirklichkeit: Das Lächeln auf Passfotos wird verboten.

Grund ist die Einführung von biometrischen Reisepässen, für deren Bilder strengere Richtlinien als für die bisherigen Ausweisfotos gelten.

Monday was the day scheduled for expatriates from Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Sudan to record their biometrics, and consequently, hundreds including women descended in the morning on the deportation center.

Lebanese who require new passports before the biometric documents are issued would be advised to apply for short-term alternatives until the “e-passport” goes into use in 2015, thereby avoiding spending large sums on passports that will become obsolete.

Berlin-based German company, Bundesdruckerei GmbH (the Federal Printers) who are printing the new Libyan biometric passports, said that the first biometric passport should be issued in the last week of July if all sides keep to the agreed timelines.

The new system will help prevent fraudulent practices such as using forged passports. “Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLFEB) is using special software to store fingerprint data of the migrant workers going abroad for employment,” M.M. Deshapriya, the Counsellor of Labour at Sri Lankan Embassy in Muscat, told Times of Oman.

Sri Lanka has been issuing National Identity Cards (NICs) to its citizens for 45 years now, but the government’s recent push for an electronic version with biometrics is making privacy advocates uneasy about the extent of information the state wants in its database.

In February, the country’s Right to Information Act came into force, drawing praise for the government’s efforts to promote transparency. Six months later, the government presented to Parliament regulations for creating a central electronic database of citizens that officials with wide-ranging powers will be able to access.

Experts from Australia and Hong Kong are preparing feasibility reports on implementing biometric passports, said Immigration and Emigration Controller Chulananda Perera.

Introducing the ‘N’ series of passports, installing new equipment in the Documentation Examination Laboratory where the legality of passports and visas are examined and mainly used by airline officials and the CID, introducing an electronic travelling system and issuing visas online are the other suggestions and concepts submitted, Mr. Perera said, “We are rapidly working towards the practice of issuing visas online without delay,” he said.

The department said the e-NIC concept was brought forward by the government due to security concerns. But it was still being discussed and had to be finalized.

“There definitely will be a change from the manual NIC to the digintal ones soon,” DRP Commissioner General, Jagath P. Wijeweera said. He explained that the LTTE and other groups had found it easy to forge the NIC during the war due to it being manually handled.

Samsung Network Inc, the Korean IT company involved in the e-Sri Lanka government network project, is likely to secure another multi-million dollar IT-related contract on producing electronic National Identity Cards (e-NICs) or biometric IDs for all citizens in the island, informed sources said.

The Sri Lankan government has given the green light to issue electronic National Identity Cards (e-NICs) for all citizens as a sequel to a proposal submitted by the President as Minister of Defence.

The policy objectives of the Biometric system is to help ensure a safe and secure workplace by readily identifying government employees and by providing an identification card that is difficult to duplicate or forge. This process has helped the government of Liberia in identifying ghosts and other duplications on the payroll.

What’s puzzling in the announcement is the fact that the current government did not take into account all the flaws that marred these projects, specifically the NID Project, nor did it do a proper analysis or study of them. Most advanced countries do not have an NID system but rather a Social Number that is only relevant to the Tax and Social Services. Contrary to international standards in the field, Libya is still insisting on continuing a project that was based on a security-phobic regime and not concerned in facilitating services to its citizens.

However, proving that people are who they say they are has been a challenge with digital security since computers have been in use. Biometrics offers a great way to authenticate individuals into systems, applications and data.

Chief elections officer, Willy Kalonga, said in a news statement made available to Nyasa Times that the electronic voter registration system would be used in the 2019 elections.

A Biometric Voter Registration involves the use of biometric technologies with the use of computers, fingerprint scanners and digital cameras to capture the bio data of applicants.

The move follows what the Electoral Commission describes as ‘enormous challenges in maintaining a credible voters’ roll’. The main challenge was data capture in the field, which the new system will resolve.

The biometric voter registration system will use fingerprint scanners and digital cameras to capture the biometric data of applicants.