Georgia has begun a nationwide campaign to provide its citizens with new smart ID cards that are designed to perform a myriad of applications, according to The Financial.
Introduced earlier this week to the staff of the Civil Registry, the cards will allow users to perform online signatures, register and change addresses, fill out declarations, sign contracts, register organizations and much more.
“For the beginning only services of the Civil Registry will be added to the ID card’s functions, like address registration or address changing,” explained Valeri Tkeshelashvili, consultant of the Civil Registry. “It means that an individual will be able to sign digitally and get any service online at any time of day and from any point in the world.”
Tkeshelashvili added that all state departments will eventually add their services to the new ID cards, in addition to private sector services from businesses, universities and banks.
To perform a signature on a digital document, like a PDF, the user hooks up a special reader to the computer containing the document and then inserts his or her ID card into the reader. The user then clicks to “sign” the document, and is given a numerical code to confirm the signature. Once complete, the file can be sent anywhere online as a valid, signed document, says The Financial.
According to Tkeshelashvili, these card readers will soon be available on the Georgian market, and can be purchased for €4 in Europe.
The cards, which cost 30 GEL (about $18), will first be rolled out in Tbilisi and Batumi ahead of a nationwide launch later this year.
The Civil Registry plans to print 500,000 cards this year, with the goal of ultimately issuing 3 million.
Read more here. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/digitalidnews-4.gif)
