Tuesday, Apr 05, 2011
Gulf News
Abu Dhabi: Countries currently working to set up their national ID systems can share knowledge and learn from each others unique experiences, attendees at the World ID Forum heard in the capital yesterday.
While the UAEs national ID process is a precursor and far nearer completion compared to systems in South East Asia, both the Indian and the Bangladesh systems of issuing IDs provide insight into how to manage the process for extremely large populations.
Indias national IDs will be similar in that we are collecting multiple biometric data like the UAE, including data about the face, iris and fingers. However, we have to extend the scale of our databases and processes to incorporate 1 billion people by 2017, and this will be both a challenge as well as a learning experience, Patrick Lodola, vice-president and director of the identity business unit at Safran Morpho, one of three companies approved to work on Indias ID process, told Gulf News.
Currently, 4.5 million IDs have already been issued in the populous nation to both citizens and residents.
Secure manner
We started issuing them in September 2010, and have managed to enrol about 1.6 million people a month. However, our target is to enrol a million people a day in a secure manner, Lodola said.
In neighbouring Bangladesh, the national ID system is somewhat different. The ID cards initially given out in 2008 were linked to voter registration, and the system was established in order to create an authentic voter list without duplication of names.
Our system is different from the UAEs and this is because many in Bangladeshs rural areas do not have any ID documents at all. So in Bangladesh, we had to start from scratch and are currently working to expand it, Major General Mohammad Shafiqul Islam said.
By Samihah Zaman, Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2011. All rights reserved.
