SAC Vice Chairman Deputy Prime Minister Vice-Senior General Soe Win addresses coordination meeting of Steering Committee for National Database Building System
Nay Pyi Taw October 6
The Steering Committee for National Database Building System held its first work coordination meeting at the meeting hall of the Ministry of Immigration and Population in Nay Pyi Taw this afternoon, with an address by Steering Committee Chairman Vice Chairman of the State Administration Council Deputy Prime Minister Vice-Senior General Soe Win.
Present at the meeting were union ministers, the Union Auditor General, the chairman of the Nay Pyi Taw Council, deputy ministers, departmental officials, and chairpersons and officials from various organizations, while the chief ministers of the regions and states attended it via video link.
In his speech, the Vice-Senior General said today, there are about 8,000 million people in the world, and surveys show that there are about 1,000 million people without identity cards, about 3,400 million people with identity cards which are not digital, and some 3,600 million people with digital identity cards.
Globally, there are 46 countries that can operate public services with digital identity cards, 119 countries that cannot operate public services using the card system, and 33 countries that cannot operate the digital identity card system.
To undergo transition to the digital system in our country and implement the e-Government system more successfully, the National Database System Building Steering Committee was established by the State Administration Council in May 2022 with the Notification No.
87/2022 dated May 22, and it was reconstituted with the Notification No. 159/2023 dated August 19.
The functions of the Committee are to establish, guide and supervise policies to implement the e-ID system, and guide and have links with the union ministries, to assist G to G to get the necessary methods for the e-ID system, to make supervisions to prevent direct intervention by foreign companies, organizations and governments in terms of national security and to provide technically skilled human resources.
The Ministry of Immigration and Population has been assigned as the focal ministry, and an e-ID system work committee, comprising 29 members, was formed on September 23, 2021.
Under the work committee, the implementation supervisory sub-committee, the planning sub-committee, the legal drafting sub-committee, the technical and tender drawing sub-committee, the financial sub-committee, and the information committee totaling six have been formed.
In order for these committees to implement the e-ID system, measures were taken to draw up a Master Plan in accordance with international standards, a System Architecture Design, and a guide (ToR) to follow in hiring foreign technological advisers and a draft bylaw on the registration of residents in Myanmar under electronic system based on the Resident Registration Act of 1949 in Myanmar and the Registration of Residents in Myanmar Bylaw 1951.
In implementing the e-ID system, five steps will be carried out: collecting Biographic Data and inserting it into Database, collecting Biometric Data, analyzing, and issuing Unique ID (UID), issuing and producing blank card formats in accord with international standards, installing personal information in blank card formats, and overseeing the e-ID system process.
The electronic technology system, called e-ID, uses a modern technology computer system to store personal information of all legal residents in the country in the government's Database. In other words, it is the Human Resource Database for the success of e-Government, issuing unique Identification Numbers of individuals so that they can recover their personal information if necessary.
It is known as the national integration system or population registration. Under the international e-ID system, there are human resource databases to protect and govern citizens, business databases to protect business from frauds and undesirable controls, asset databases to control vehicles and protect citizens from traffic accidents and property databases to prevent illegal sales and purchases. These are essential databases for the e-ID system.
The national integration system is concerned not with citizenship or non-citizenship but with personal data of all citizens, associate citizens and naturalized citizens who reside in the country. Based on technologies, databases from government ministries and all walks of life will have to be linked.
The Ministry of Immigration and Population will scrutinize whether one is a citizen, noncitizen, associate or naturalized citizen based on personal data for the e-ID database.
Therefore, in collecting distinctive personal data of individuals for the e-ID system, all biographic and biometric data of citizens, associate citizens, naturalized citizens, permanent residency holders, foreign registration certificate holders who reside in the country will be collected and unique ID numbers consisting of 10 figures will be issued for each and every individual. The e-ID system is implemented so that relevant ministries can build their own databases to provide services to the public quickly.
In phase-1 of the implementation of the e-ID system, personal data (N-4) of more than 52 million citizens and over 13 million household lists (66/6) have been fully entered into the e-ID database.
During the entry of personal data of citizens, it was found that some personal data of some citizens were missing as they were recorded on paper for a long time and some documents were damaged by natural disasters and other causes.
Therefore, field data collection was carried out on the ground by forming committees in the entire country from 9 to 31 January to verify data in the e-ID database.
Under phase-2 of the implementation of the e-ID database, biometric data were collected from government employees in the union territory as a pilot project in November, 2022 and at present, biometric data are being collected in the entire country.
Implementing the e-ID system provide many benefits to the people including availability of all data at one stop, contributions of the implementation of the e-Government system, easy restoration of security, the rule of law and stability of the country, conducting population census conveniently, reduction of paper based systems, building the foundation for national ID and easy links to international systems, building the foundation for transition to digital economy of Myanmar and provisions of services for education, health, taxation and other services of the country.
The e-ID system and the collected data are big data and it is important to keep them safe as personal information, as well as, the national database are important for the state.
The databases maintained by the ministry, including the National Database included in the e-ID, are databases that can be disclosed to the public, as well as, databases that cannot be disclosed due to the security of the state and the ministry. Therefore, cyber security systems have been put in place and network monitoring systems should be installed, and the Myanmar Computer Emergency Response Team should be strengthened and network security should be increased.
In today's information technology era, our country is also aiming for e-Government system.
It would be wrong to think that it is the level of correspondence by connecting to the inter-government and the office network. E-Government means that the government provides services to the people by using efficient, fast and secure computer systems to provide fast and progressive services to the public. In order to provide such services, every government department must build databases related to the ministry with experts. It means that the national database or the state's important records are connected with a computer system to connect databases and speed up the operation of government mechanisms. In order to provide services to individuals based on the national database, the personal information of each individual is included in the e-ID system, and the relevant ministries also connect the personal information of each individual in the e-ID system and provide services. The e-ID system work committee has established plans and is working at a fast pace, so once it is built as a national database, it will be able to provide more security for citizens' social life.
After that, Secretary of the National Database System Steering Committee, Union Minister for Immigration and Population Ministry U Myint Kyaing presented the activities of the e-ID System Work Committee and plans to be carried out.
After that, Union Minister for Science and Technology Dr. Myo Thein Kyaw presented information on Myanmar e-Government Master Plan - 2030 (Draft) and information on courses to be opened and taught by the ministry for human resource development.
Next, Brigadier General Myat Min Oo, Head of the Information and Technology Department of the Tatmadaw (Army, Navy, and Air), presented the building of a national database, the follow-up conditions and recommendations.
Then, those who attended the meeting discussed and presented suggestions regarding the process of building the national database system according to the relevant sectors.
After that, the Chairman of the National Database System Steering Committee, the Vice-Chairman of the State Administration Council, the Deputy Prime Minister, said the e-ID committee members will explain the process of the e-ID system and the measures to be taken in the future to the employees who have to implement it according to the ministries. After that, there will be clarification and discussion by state and region. Since the e-ID system can collect individual personal information of the people, it will be greatly assisted in the service sector such as the ability for the people to easily communicate with the ministries according to their desired industry through the online communication system from the paper-based system. Therefore, in order for ministries to be able to serve the people, there is a need to open and teach courses related to software, hardware and networking starting from the basic computer technology to implement the e-Government system according to the ministry.
In addition, there is a need to select and group internal staff experts who will be able to handle and use electronic devices in ministries, regions and states, and although there may be difficulties in implementing the e-Government system, the weaknesses experienced during the implementation of the activities and the strengths must be corrected. Only with the national database will we be able to provide fast service to the people. Regarding the national database system construction activities, the relevant officials need to be pre-planned and coordinate the necessary things. It was reported that the meeting was concluded after making the necessary coordination and giving the closing speech.