What does the arrival of the electronic card mean | National Registry – Government – Policy

Colombia is preparing to take one of the biggest leaps in terms of identification of its citizens: the implementation of the electronic card, which will mean not only a great advance in innovation, but also the streamlining of various procedures that must be carried out daily.

Digital identification has been one of the purposes of the electoral authorities during the last decades, which have advanced in studies and calculations of the costs and the impact that implementing the electronic card could have.

One of the goals of the current national registrar, Alexánder Vega, is for the entity under his charge to fully enter the 21st century, and for this, the digital identification of citizens is one of the most important steps.

According to a document from the World Bank, the identification system of a citizen is one of the fundamental requirements for access to different instances of modern societies.

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For this entity, identification documents vary from one place to another, but birth certificates, national cards, passports and driver’s licenses are “common” credentials that citizens should have for their daily life.

In this sense, the digitization of these documents is one of the vital steps to eliminate problems such as fraud and impersonation and help speed up people’s lives.

“Reliable and inclusive digital identification systems can also enhance the transparency, efficiency and effectiveness of the management and delivery of public programs and services. They can help the public sector to reduce fraud and leakages in transfers that the government provides to people, facilitate new ways of providing services and increase administrative efficiency in general, ”says the World Bank document.

Just as the electronic card has benefits in the public sector, it also has benefits in the private sector. According to the multilateral organization, these digital identification systems “can help companies to reduce operating costs related to compliance with regulations”, that is, the processes of verification of the client’s identity, and to expand the customer bases, generate new markets and promote an environment conducive to business activity.

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“Identity cards are not fully valued by those who have them. But the lack of identification creates barriers for affected individuals and the countries where they live, ”says Makhtar Diop, Vice President of Infrastructure at the World Bank.

November, key date

In the Colombian case, the idea, as Vega has said, is that the electronic card is available to citizens in the month of November, that is, approximately in a week.

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“The new electronic card will be at the highest level of security regarding identification documents in the world. It will be produced with the latest technology materials and processes, which will facilitate access to procedures and services before public and private entities in a digital or virtual way, thus allowing biometric authentication, ”the National Registrar told EL TIEMPO a few weeks ago.

Among the most important characteristics that this document will have is the incorporation of a chip in which the information of citizens will be stored.

To obtain it, all you have to do is request a duplicate document and pay the costs of this procedure before the National Registry.

In what the National Registry has been emphatic is that the electronic card will be available to citizens who want to carry it and that those who want to keep their current document will be able to do so, since it will continue to be valid.

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According to Vega, the difference will be that those who access digital identification will be able to streamline several of the procedures they carry out daily, while those who prefer their current document will have to continue doing them as before.

One of the greatest meanings of the electronic card is the advance that this represents in terms of innovation for the country.

Until now, several of the political and electoral processes that are carried out in Colombia still require presence, which, on some occasions, causes new generations to move away from this kind of democratic exercises.

Voting, for example, is a process that still requires the citizen to go to the polling station, locate the table where they are to vote, fill out some documents provided by the juries and proceed to manually mark the card and deposit it in an urn arranged for it.

For many observers, this process can be cumbersome and time-consuming for many people, and this could in part lead to the absence of voters on election days.

One of the ways to reach the digitization of the vote is undoubtedly digital identity, which would be being adopted for Colombians with the new electronic card.

Agility in procedures

The other innovation factor that the electronic card has is in terms of speeding up the citizens’ procedures.

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According to what was announced by the Vega registrar, citizen information such as medical records or civil birth records could be in the new document.

This fact, from the outset, would exempt citizens who have the electronic card from obtaining them every time they need to do a diligence, since they could provide them with the mere presentation of their identity document.

Additionally, according to what was said by the Registrar, the identity card would not only be physical, but could also be had in an application on the cell phone.

This would allow citizens not to have to carry their identity card, but could present it digitally, and the authorities would have to validate it as if it were physical.

All this makes the electronic card one of the most important steps in the country in terms of innovation and brings the population closer to the digitization of their identity, one of the tools that would most help to facilitate the lives of citizens. Colombians.

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JUAN FRANCISCO VALBUENA G.
POLITICAL WRITING