Vice-Chairman of State Administration Council Deputy Prime Minister Vice-Senior General Soe Win Delivers an Address at Coordination Meeting of Steering Committee for Building National Database System

Vice-Chairman of State Administration Council Deputy Prime Minister Vice-Senior General Soe Win Delivers an Address at Coordination Meeting of Steering Committee for Building National Database System

The Steering Committee for the National Database Building System held its first work coordination meeting at the meeting hall of the Ministry of Immigration and Population in Nay Pyi Taw on 6 October, with an address delivered by the Steering Committee Chairman Vice Chairman of the State Administration Council Deputy Prime Minister Vice-Senior General Soe Win.

In his speech,

· The Vice-Senior General said to undergo a transition to the digital system in the country and implement the e-government system more successfully, the National Database System Building Steering Committee was established by the State Administration Council in May 2022 with Notification No. 87/2022 dated May 22, and it was reconstituted with the Notification No. 159/2023 dated August 19.

· The functions of the Committee are to establish, guide and supervise policies to implement the e-ID system and guide and have links with the union ministries, to assist G to G to get the necessary methods for the e-ID system, to make supervisions to prevent direct intervention by foreign companies, organizations and governments in terms of national security and to provide technically skilled human resources.

· The Ministry of Immigration and Population has been assigned as the focal ministry, and an e-ID system working committee, comprising 29 members, was formed on 23 September 2021.

· Under the working committee, the implementation supervisory sub-committee, the planning sub-committee, the legal drafting sub-committee, the technical and tender drawing sub-committee, the financial sub-committee, and the information committee totalling six have been formed.

· In implementing the e-ID system, five steps will be carried out: collecting Biographic Data and inserting it into Database; collecting Biometric Data, analyzing, and issuing Unique ID (UID); issuing and producing blank card formats in accordance with international standards; installing personal information in blank card formats; and overseeing the e-ID system process.

· The national integration system is concerned not with citizenship or non-citizenship but with the personal data of all citizens, associate citizens and naturalized citizens who reside in the country. Based on technologies, databases from government ministries and all walks of life will have to be linked. The Ministry of Immigration and Population will scrutinize whether one is a citizen, noncitizen, associate or naturalized citizen based on personal data for the e-ID database.

· In phase 1 of the implementation of the e-ID system, personal data (N-4) of more than 52 million citizens and over 13 million household lists (66/6) have been fully entered into the e-ID database

· Field data collection was carried out on the ground by forming committees in the entire country from 9 to 31 January to verify data in the e-ID database.

· Under phase 2 of the implementation of the e-ID database, biometric data were collected from government employees in the union territory as a pilot project in November, 2022 and at present, biometric data are being collected in the entire country.

· The e-ID system and the collected data are big data and it is important to keep them safe as personal information, as well as, the national database is important for the State.

· The databases maintained by the ministry, including the National Database, included in the e-ID, are databases that can be disclosed to the public, as well as, databases that cannot be disclosed due to the security of the state and the ministry. Therefore, cyber security systems have been put in place network monitoring systems should be installed, and the Myanmar Computer Emergency Response Team should be strengthened and network security should be increased.

Then, those who attended the meeting discussed and presented suggestions regarding the process of building the national database system according to the relevant sectors. After that, the Chairman of the National Database System Steering Committee, the Vice-Chairman of the State Administration Council made necessary coordination with them to fulfil the needs.

Present at the meeting were union ministers, the Union Auditor General, the chairman of the Nay Pyi Taw Council Territory, deputy ministers, departmental officials, and chairpersons and officials from various organizations, while the chief ministers of the regions and states attended it via videoconferencing.

Source: Myawady Daily Newspaper (7-10-2023)