Vietnam plans to use one-for-all ID number

The Justice Ministry has presented to the NA a draft law on civil status registry, under which every citizen will be granted one single identification number to be used on all licenses.

The Justice Ministry has presented to the National Assembly’s Standing Committee a draft law on civil status registry, under which every citizen will be granted one single identification number to be used on all licenses. This number will remain the same throughout a holder’s life.

Residents carry out procedures at the Ho Chi Minh City Immigration Department

Most of the committee’s members agreed to the drafted law, under which such a number will be granted to every citizen at birth and used in identifying themselves to authorities and in administrative procedures.

This means one same number will be used on ID card, passport, driving license, social insurance papers, birth certificate, marriage certificate, income tax code …for one’s whole life. Now, the numbers on different documents of a person are different.

Once granted, this number would be indicated on a personal civil status registry book of every citizen, Justice Minister Ha Hung Cuong said.

The book will show all personal details and changes of such details during a person’s life. This single book is a legally-valid replacement of other separate papers like certificates of birth, passports, certificates of marriage, social insurance papers…

With such a book, residents would not need to obtain so many different kinds of papers to prove their civil status, he added.

Cuong told the committee that many developed countries in the world have effectively applied single citizen identification numbers.

Most of the members of the NA’s Standing Committee agreed that such a citizen identification number is necessary and in line with the trend of management using advanced technology.

However, some members wondered whether the book should be granted to the entire population of 87 million or only to people born on or after the effective date of the regulation.

Chairman of the NA’s Committee for Science, Technology and Environment Phan Xuan Dung proposed that all citizens, whether their birthday is before or after, be granted such a book to ensure the unity in management. He also suggested that the law’s drafters set out a schedule for such an issue.

Chairman of the NA’s Committee for Culture, Education, Youth, Teenagers and Children said that such a book would be used effectively only when paper-based records have been converted into centralized electronic databases that can be managed and updated using an effective online management network.