Reply To:
Name - Reply Comment
Sri Lanka to develop two digital systems to register and authenticate its citizens
By Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana
Colombo, March 11 (Daily Mirror) - Sri Lanka is to get into a joint project with India to design and implement its own digital identity system to register and authenticate its citizens while there will be a second project to develop an electronic national identity card, it was revealed in Parliament today.
Deputy Minister of Digital Economy Eranga Weeraratne who was responding to a question raised by Opposition MP Harsha de Silva assured that there will not be any overlapping or any other issue as both systems will be under his ministry.
The first project will be a digital identity system based on MOSIP (Modular Open Source Identity system) which will be a joint project with India. This disclosure which was made by Dr de Silva was not denied by the Deputy Minister.
Dr. De Silva argued that funds should not be wasted on two projects. “The system which is to be developed using MOSIP can be used to ensure the authenticity of a person whenever he or she engages in a transaction. This will be done using bio-metrics of a person. Is it necessary to spend funds for an electronic national identity card in such a situation?” he questioned.
The MP also questioned whether it is possible to issue a PVC identity card without a chip instead of a fully digitalized one. The Deputy Minister who responded said it is essential to issue a long lasting identity card. He said a PVC card will last only a short time.
Meanwhile MP Namal Rajapaksa recalled that those in the current government opposed the move to set up a digital identity system. “You accused us of creating room for selling data to another country when our government was trying to do it during our tenure in the government, However, you are forced to mention that you have lied to the people now that your government has undertaken to implement a similar project,” he said.
Also he said citizen services should be digitized. “Set up an electronic courts system and electronic procurement system. Also he proposed the introduction of a single window payment.
Comments - 7
Recommended
You May Also Like
Trending
