The FINANCIAL — Online signature, address registration, address changing, registration of an organization, filling out declarations, signing contracts, getting a card, remote identification – this is but a short list of the functions of the new ID card in Georgia.
New ID cards will be available in Georgia from August 1. The price of the cards is 30 GEL and they will be available 10 days after one’s application. The Civil Registry offers an expedited service as well. For people who are under 70 001 points in the poverty rate rating cards will be free. In August the service will be available in Tbilisi and Batumi. All the regions of Georgia will be added step by step at a later stage.
For the moment, some test ID cards have already been given to the staff of the Civil Registry.
“For the beginning only services of the Civil Registry will be added to the ID card’s functions, like address registration or address changing. It will make the service easier and more effective.” Valeri Tkeshelashvili, consultant of the Civil Registry, told The FINANCIAL.
“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,” he added.
Digital signature is available in 6 types of computer document formats, like Microsoft Word and pdf. To sign, a special card reader is needed. The consumer puts their ID card in the reader and plugs the reader in to a computer. Then he/she gives the order “To Sign” in the preferable document and writes a special combination of numbers and confirms it. After confirmation the file is already valid and can be sent to any organization as an official signed document. If there are any changes in the document, they will be detected immediately and the document loses its validity.
“Card readers will be available in the market as well. The private market will import them and demand will regulate the price. A card reader’s price abroad is about 4 EUR,” Tkeshelashvili noted.
“Later all state departments will add their services to the new ID cards. But it won’t be limited to state services alone. We are encouraging the private sector to join us. We are arranging introductory presentations and everything else depends on them. The more organizations that add their services to the card, the easier life will be for consumers as well as for the organizations themselves,” Tkeshelashvili said.
The Civil Registry guarantees the cyber safety of the card as well as safety from counterfeiting.
For the first year the Civil Registry plans to print up to half a million cards. In total 3 million cards will be printed and the cost of the whole project is supposed to be 7 million EUR.
For people who already have ID cards, getting a new one isn’t mandatory. But the old cards will no longer be available to get. New cards are available from the age of 14. For people under age 18 cards will be valid for a 3 year period, from 18 – for a 10 year period.
TBC Bank has already started working on new projects connected to the new ID cards, which will probably be implemented in the first quarter of 2012. At the beginning the Bank will add only a few services. Later their number will increase.
“This innovative idea provides bank services to its consumers in an easier and more effective way,” said Vakhtang Butskhrikidze, General Director of TBC Bank. “It will cause a price change as well. A service of better quality will be available for lower prices.”
Vano Baliashvili, Deputy of the General Director of TBC Bank told The FINANCIAL that in the first stage the Bank is planning to have about 100,000 GEL investments in this project.
“Of course this new project needs investments but we are waiting for a good profit,” Baliashvili said. “We will reduce the costs of staff, technology, furniture and paper as many services will be online. This may result in a price decrease of banking services.”
Until the prices of bank services reduce, consumers can save 1 GEL – the additional cost of service in banks by using the new ID cards.
One’s address information won’t be depicted on the ID card. It’ll make the voting process easier too.
The Civil Registry is encouraging schools and universities to join as well. By using it the parents of pupils will be able to know when their children enter and leave school. For students it can be used as a student card.
The ID card is bilingual and the Civil Registry doesn’t exclude it being used while crossing the border. A further decision depends on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they say.
The official presentation of the new ID cards will be held on August 1 in Batumi. President Mikheil Saakashvili will present it during Nino Katamadze’s concert near the House of Justice.
The Ministry of Justice started working on this project in 1998. Such ID cards are in use in Estonia, Finland, Belgium, Spain etc.
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