As BiometricUpdate.com has previously mentioned, Indonesia committed US$600 million to provide a national identity card to all of its 172 million residents. The Asian nation has introduced a new eID credential to replace all existing identity cards. The cards, entitled Kartu Tanda Penduduk Elektronik, or e-KTP for short, will be used for voter registration, passport issuance, tax payments and to verify identity for social assistance.
Read more: Indonesia most advanced adopter of eID credentials
“This will be a step-by-step process. We are on our way to turning Medan into a digital city,” Medan Mayor Rahudman Harahap said.
Medan recently received the Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) Pura Award from the Communications and Information Ministry for developing the ICT infrastructure in the city.
Read more: ID: North Sumatra: Medan to expand free Internet for residents
Dr Gamawan Fauzi, the Minister of Home Affairs, has publically stated that he will resign if the project does not meet its goals by the end of 2012.
Indonesia is preparing to roll out what is possibly the world’s most ambitious biometric national electronic identity card (e-KTP) initiative. This project will be a challenge for numerous reasons, including the fact that the large country is an archipelago consisting of more than 17,000 islands with 141 million residents. Also, certain regions outside of the main urbanized areas may face infrastructure difficulties, such as reliable access to electricity and low Internet bandwidth.
Read more: Indonesia makes progress on its ambitious biometrics national ID card project
Authorities noted that even when migrant workers returned home for the Idul Fitri holiday, they did not take the opportunity to go and register for the e-ID card. The district office stayed open during the holiday to accommodate migrant workers who wished to register.