UK / Singapore
The UK and Singapore have signed three MoUs covering digital trade opportunities, digital identity and cybersecurity. The deals were signed at the first Future Tech Forum in London last week, which marks the end of the UK G7 Digital and Tech Presidency.
The aim is to facilitate digital trade between the countries under a partnership that will make digital transactions by businesses easier, safer and cheaper.
The MOUs will strengthen the digital connectivity between them, said Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information and the UK’s Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in a joint statement.
“In 2019, 70 percent of UK cross-border services exports to Singapore were digitally delivered,” said the government organisations. The exports amounted to £3.2 billion (S$5.85 billion) in value.
“These MOUs will further support opportunities to grow digital delivery of cross-border services between the UK and Singapore, provide a basis for working closely with like-minded digital partners, and help set a global benchmark on high-standards digital cooperation to bring economic and societal benefits to both countries,” they added.
Slovenia
Secure printing specialist Cetis has been awarded the contract to produce biometric residence permits for foreigners living in Slovenia. The deal worth €15.7 million lasts ten years during which the company expects to produce more than a million cards, reports STA via Biomtetric Update.
The contract includes temporary and permanent residence cards which Cetis will design, produce, personalize, store and deliver. The cards conform with EU requirements for biometric capture for third-country residents (non-EU citizens). Cards for EU and Swiss citizens residing in Slovenia will not include biometric data.
Cetis was also recently awarded the contract for Slovenian biometric national ID cards. All formats are expected to be issued in 2022.
South Africa
Public-private-partnership agreements will see Department of Home Affairs services being made available at many more banks in South Africa following current pilots in 25 branches.
The goal is to offer E-Home Affairs services such as providing biometrics enrolment in branch as part of the application process to issue Smart ID cards and passports. Major banks such as Standard, FNB and Nebank are already involved in the pilot. The number of sites is expected to grow to 70 once more agreements are signed.
The service carries a fee, the collection of which needs to be resolved before the expanded rollout around 1 July 2022.
Philippines
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has said that as more people apply for the PhilID (Philippine Identification) card, the country will be able to enact paperless transactions. The agency implementing the biometric ID system, PhilSys (the Philippine Identification System) expects to register around 50 million Filipinos in Step 1 of the process by the end of 2021 after reaching 40.26 million weeks ago and up to 70 million by the end of 2022, of a total population estimated at around 110 million.
North Macedonia
The Republic of North Macedonia has launched its first National Digital Identity Service – in partnership with Mastercard – to advance the country’s digital economy aspirations.
The partnership between Mastercard and the Macedonian Ministry of Information Society and Administration (MISA) – first announced in early 2020 – brings local digital identity and related services, such as digital document signing and verification, to Macedonian citizens.
The infrastructure for the National Digital Identity Service is provided by ID Service – a Mastercard digital identity service operated by Evrotrust – providing an all-in-one, digital identification service on smartphones. This enables documents to be signed electronically with the same legal standing as handwritten documents, representing a further step towards the digitalization of administration and services in North Macedonia.
Nigeria
Nigeria’s Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Ali Isa Pantami, has re-stated the need for every Nigerian to register for a national identification number (NIN), saying the biometrics-backed digital ID is crucial for the security of the country, according to local reports.
Pantami made the call during a recent lecture at the Federal Technical College of Education in the city of Gombe on the theme “Deployment of emerging technology to enhance the security of tertiary institutions in Nigeria.”
The Minister spoke about the challenges that have stood in their way as far as the digital ID project is concerned, but insisted that the federal government is poised to carry on with it, given its importance not only for crime reduction, but also the growth and development of the country, Punch reports.
India
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is looking to collaborate with foreign countries and international organisations to build digital identity systems across the world, a top official said on Friday.
UIDAI CEO Saurabh Garg during a panel discussion with Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma at the Infinity Forum said the authority is also exploring emerging technology to enhance security and increase the number of transactions that can be done by using Aadhaar.
“We think going forward we will be happy to collaborate with other nations. We would like to collaborate with international organisations also in building international institutions for standards for national identity.
“We look forward to future years to collaborate with different nations and see that digital identity, which becomes a means of empowerment, is available across the world,” Garg said.
He said 99.5 percent of the population in India now has Aadhaar and 50 million authentication is done daily for verifying various transactions.
