Foreword APPENDIX A

 China

On June 28 2003, the Third Plenary Meeting of the 10th National People’s Longstanding Committee approved "The National Citizen ID Law of the People’s Republic of China", becoming effective on January 1, 2004. By now the Chinese government has officially kicked off the world largest National Citizen eID system issuing ultimately contactless chips card to 900 million citizen over the age of 16 to be completed by the end of 2008. Batson, 2003 China’s ID-card law doesn’t have any provisions controlling how the government or companies can gather and use personal information. Song Gongde, a legal expert at the National School of Administration in Beijing, says he was encouraged by a provision in China’s ID law, passed in June, that strictly limits the kinds of data that can be put on the ID card, including name, birth date and the 18-digit citizen ID number. But the law does not give citizens the right to see or correct their personal information, whether it is stored on a card or elsewhere. 

 Hong Kong

In August 2003 the government of Hong Kong (Immigration Department) began issuing new multi application eID cards (SMARTICS) to its citizens. The government began issuing smart cards to new arrivals, children eligible for a juvenile ID card on reaching age 11, 18 year olds eligible for an adult ID, individuals applying for replacement cards and those changing data on their ID cards. Existing ID card holders have been called up through public announcements to attend the Smart ID Card Centres in groups, in accordance with their year of birth. Cardholders have a free choice to decide whether to include the applications in their smart ID card or not. Hong Kong residents are also given the option to apply for one year’s free use of the Hong Kong Post e-Cert which will be embedded in the chip. Having a year’s free use of e-Cert will promote awareness and growth of the service. Hong Kong expects this will also encourage and drive industry initiatives to develop new business applications or services relating to the use of e-Cert on smart ID cards. There are plans to add electronic cash in the future. In the introduction phase much effort was put to address the public concerns of privacy. As a result of these efforts the project now has broad support. 

 Malaysia

The Malaysian multi purpose electronic ID (MyKad, internet extension for Malysia + Malaysian word for card) is the most advanced and largest eID project in the world. The Government Multi Purpose Card project is part of the Malaysian Multi-media Super Corridor initiative. This project is one of seven flagship applications deployed by the Malaysian government to attract leading edge technology development to Malaysia. Conceived back in 1997 the MyKad project was awarded to a consortium in May 1999 with an official launch in July 2001. By May 2004 the card had been issued to 11 million people. It replaces the present paper-based identity card that is issued to every Malaysian citizen over the age of 12 years. It is mandatory for all Malaysian citizens (above 12 years old) to be in possession of an identity card. There are 17 million paper based identity cards in circulation on a total population of 21 million. The government expects to have issued 18 million eID cards by the end 2005. This scheme is on target. The MyKad incorporates the Malaysian national identity card as one of its primary functions. This application is the foundation for the project and forms the basis for it being accorded such high priority by the government. Fraud is fairly high with the old paper based cards. By introducing chip cards the risk of fraud is largely reduced. Also the Malaysian Passport application, owned by the Malaysian immigration department is being incorporated in the MyKad. This should allow cardholders to pass through passport control desks more quickly, and will also eliminate the requirement of manually processing the cardholders’ entry or exit. However the card does not replace passports for overseas travels. 

The Drivers License application is also integrated in the card. A data file in the MyKad has replaced the existing paper based driving license. The Government wanted to realise a better management of driver records and more accurate tracking of errant drivers. There are currently approximately 7 million paper card-based driver licenses in the country. Both the immigration and driving license application are automatically loaded into the eID chip at the time of card application. The card is also positioned as a national health card, which enables Malaysian citizens the access the free or subsidized health care provided by the government. Personalised medical emergency data (allergies, medications, medical history) is also stored on the cards. 

A second (contactless) Electronic Purse was recently added on the card. This complements the existing contact Proton purse and allows payments for retail transactions, tolls on the highways and parking. An upcoming use would be the payment on the urban transport networks. This will add to the convenience of the cardholders. The card supports an Automatic Teller machine (ATM) application for cash withdrawal, e-debit transactions to pay for government services and to conveniently reload the e-purses. This is a bank controlled application, the Malaysian government having developed a convenient methodology for the banks to capture and control this application on the MyKad. A PKI based digital signature application to enable users to conduct secure transactions and encrypt data over the Internet using the same PKI infrastructure. In 2004 the Malaysian Inland Revenue board (RIB) will launch an tax e-filing and stamping system. This will allow tax payers to apply for their tax returns and also get tax forms officially stamped in an on-line process. For this they have to use the digital signature facility on board the MyKad in the communication with the IRB. For cardholder verification the card holds the face (digital colour photograph) and a pair of thumbprint templates (500 bytes per print) of the cardholder. These are captured during the card application process using a specially designed system. The chip used in the MyKad was recently upgraded from an ATMEL 32K Bytes EEPROM micro controller device, to a compatible 64K device, both masked with a proprietary multi application Operation System. The card also holds a Mifare contactless chip for public transport purposes, this being the 2nd e-purse. Chipcard readers have been extensively deployed to police personnel (50,000 units) for checking driving license and ID. Banks, with the Malaysian government’s permission, are also deploying devices to read and capture information from MyKad as it allows for the paperless registration of new account holders, the capture of the ATM application (and MEPS Cash e-purse) as well as the easy registration of new credit card holders. One of the big advantages in support of the project was that the Malaysian government had already a very effective National Registration Department that was charged with the issuance and maintenance of a paper based national identity card. It was this agency that was chosen to lead the deployment of the MyKad project. From the onset of the project, the guiding rule was that, as much of the business processes for the existing identity card system would be retained as possible. This was a crucial element in the success and rapid deployment of the project. Malaysia is also very active in the domain of e-passports. 5 million passports have been issued since 1998 of different generations but all including biometric templates (2 thumbs). Malaysia is now on its way of adapting to the latest ICAO specifications and might very well become the issuer of the first fully ICAO compliant ePassport worldwide. 

Thailand 

The Thai Government has started in November 2003 the issuance of a smart card based multi-application national ID card to its citizens. The card is positioned as a communication tool between the Government and the citizen. It supports services from 34 Government bodies. The main purpose of the card is to bring the level of fraud down. Thais have now separate cards for tax, health, social security and the driver’s license. The current plastic ID card is mandatory for all Thais over 15 of age. The new combination is called the ‘e-card’. The card electronically holds the citizens’ personal data, insurance information, healthcare data, social security details from the Labour Ministry, tax information from the Inland Revenue Department and drivers license information. All 61 million citizens of Thailand from the age of 1 year will receive the card, but the first batch of 16 million goes to farmers, government employees and citizens renewing their old ID cards. The Thai Bureau of Registration Administration as the principal went for an ‘open platform’ card, including Java Card, to allow to add applications post issuance. They choose Java-based chip cards with 52 kilo-bytes of free memory for applications. The cards include digital fingerprints for biometric verification of the cardholder. Nevertheless a government official has said that the first batch of cards did not cost more than 100 Thai baht apiece (US$2.40). Krisana Kitiyadisai says “Buddhist concepts will be the framework for investigating whether the smart card scheme, its objectives, and implementation process are objectionable or acceptable from a Buddhist perspective.”