The government has approved a plan to issue electric passports, which is expected to raise the efficiency of immigration management.

The project will be implemented in four years. In the first phase from 2011-2012, e-passports will be issued only inside Vietnam. In the second phase from 2013-2014, Vietnam’s representative agencies abroad will be able to issued them. 

Also beginning in 2013, checkpoints will be set up at border-gates to inspect the e-passports. 

The plan, worth more than VND1 trillion (US$51.2 million), includes four sub-projects. Of the total investment, VND175 billion (US$8.75 million) will be used to purchase the equipment and software to produce the passports and VND512 billion ($25.6 million) will be used to install the technical infrastructure, equipment and software for e-passport issuance, and to develop control and management structures in agencies under the Ministry of Public Security. 

Under the project, a national database of e-passports, to be developed by the public security ministry, will have to be expanded, integrated, and shared with other countries’ databases.

Fingerprint recognition technology must be compatible with the technologies used in the electronic identity card system and crime archive system that the ministry is planning to build. 

Currently, there are 45 countries using e-passports. Germany was the first European country to issue them in 2005. Singapore and Malaysia were the first in South-East Asia, and Russia began issuing e-passports as of March 1^st this year.

PV