Vietnam is drafting to set up a system offering its citizens a single identification number for civil status registry for better management.
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| Application of a single identification number, being proposed in the Ministry of Justice's draft Law on Registration of Civil Status, is expected to help save time for both citizens and Government agencies. — VNA/VNS Photo Tung Lam |
"This is indispensable for administrative reform as well as increasing the efficiency of the State's management of civil status," said director of the Ministry of Justice's Department of Judicial Administration Tran That.
He added that single citizen identification numbers had been applied in many developed countries in the world and proved to be efficient.
The drafted law on civil status registry, which was publicised for comments, includes an individual personal identification number granted to each citizen at birth and used for the whole of his life.
Every person could use the number to identify himself to Government agencies and in any administrative transaction. The number would provide basic personal records, such as birth, marriage, divorce and residence.
"It would help save time for both citizens and the Government agencies," That said.
Regranting ID cards, passports, driver's licence and verifying a person's life records, for instance, would all become much easier tasks compared to the current complicated system where every personal paper has a different number.
The draft law said that the single identification number would be written on the personal civil status registry book.
According to That, the book would be granted upon the registration for a birth certificate and kept with the individual. Any event related to their civil status throughout their life would all be recorded in the book.
Residents would not need to have so many different kinds of papers to prove their civil status in this case, he said.
For the management of civil status to be simplified, the conversion of paper-based records into centralised electronic ones was very important, That added.
Currently, in Vietnam, civil status data is mainly on paper, with the computerisation of the data still infrequent in different localities.
"Without the electronic database, the management of civil status would become very difficult when the population of Vietnam reaches 87 million and continues to increase," That stressed.
He said that the computerisation of data might be started from the commune level, then gathered and managed by the provincial departments of justice.
He added that the databases would be connected to other databases of residence, tax, criminal record or nationality for an easy access to this information.
"This would put a stop to the difficulties in looking up civil status information from dispersed databases," he said.
The ministry planned to hand in the draft law to the Government next month.
