Mr. To Lam. Photo: BCA

The issuance of ID cards for children below 14 years old nationwide costs only 900 billion VND (38.37 million USD) while saving up to thousands of billions of VND spent on vaccination and health records, health insurance cards, and student ID cards, among others, according to Minister of Public Security Gen. To Lam.

The minister, entrusted by the Prime Minister, submitted a report to the National Assembly acquiring and explaining the NA Standing Committee’s feedback on the draft Law on Citizen Identification.

The new policy on issuing ID cards for children under 14 included in the bill has been approved by the Government, Lam said, citing its regulations saying the issuance is not compulsory and should be conducted per wish of residents.

Earlier, the NA Standing Committee and the NA Committee for National Defence - Security suggested further consideration and calculation of the costs and budget for the implementation of the policy.

The Government’s report affirmed the feasibility of the new regulations thanks to technological advancements in biometric authentication.

Lam said the issuance matches immigration regulations and other relevant rules, while ensuring legitimate rights and interests of people in engaging in civil transactions, especially those essential to their daily lives.

It also serves State management and promote values and convenience of the cards in activities of the digital Government and the digital society, he continued.

Although the ID cards has advantages in terms of information security and safety, and integrated information, they cannot replace bird certificates, according to the minister.

Statistics showed that the number of children under 14 in Vietnam now stands at 19 million.

 The Ministry of Public Security has proposed that children under the age of six, can receive both birth certificate and chip-based citizen identification card at the same time when their birth is registered.

However, the issuance of the chip-based citizen identification card will not be mandatory, and only carried out if parents or guardians want them.

The proposal was made under the draft Law on Citizenship Identity (amended).

The information was also posted on the official website of the ministry last week for opinions from experts and interested parties.

For the children under six, whose birth has been registered, parents or guardians can go to the identity management agency and carry out the procedures for granting chip-based citizen identification cards to the children if needed, the draft said.

Children under six years old do not have to provide biometric information, the draft said.

Under the draft, the ministry also proposes to integrate into chip-based citizen identification card some stable and frequently-used information of citizens in addition to information in the citizen identity database.

The data include information about health insurance card, social insurance book, driving license, diplomas, birth certificate and marriage certificate.

The draft stipulates that the chip-based citizen identification card's integrated information is equivalent to the presentation of documents issued by the competent authority.

According to the ministry, the move helps create favourable conditions for citizens in performing civil transactions, contributing to the implementation of digital transformation and administrative reform.

In addition, the draft says that old-version identity cards, which are still valid, were issued before the effective date of the law, can be used until the end of December 31, 2024.
 

Other papers issued using information from people's old-version identity cards remain legally valid.

State-management agencies are not allowed to prescribe procedures for correcting and changing information related to people's old-version identity cards and chip-based citizen identification cards, the draft said.

By the end of December 2022, the ministry had approved more than 17 million electronic identification accounts for citizens and issued more than 76.5 million chip-based citizen identification cards in the country.

The ministry said chip-based citizen identification cards together with electronic identification accounts have brought many benefits, reduced many types of documents for citizens and created a foundation for the implementation of public service utilities./.