Preparations are underway to issue unique identification numbers to each Vietnamese citizen.

The Ministry of Justice announced that the personal identification number will consist of 12 digits, assigned to each citizen at birth, and will remain unchanged throughout their lifetime and will not be repeated for any one person. The issuance of these identification numbers is expected to be implemented from June 2013 to May 2014.

The Ministry of Justice has just completed a draft of the overall plan to simplify administrative procedures, citizen documents, and national databases related to population management, as requested by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly and the Government. The draft plan is currently being circulated for comments from relevant agencies.

The project aims to support the development of the Civil Registration Law, towards establishing and assigning a citizen identification number to each citizen; improving the current multiple civil registration books into a single book - the Civil Registration Register; creating individual civil registration books and issuing them to Vietnamese citizens upon birth registration; and building a national electronic civil registration database…

To finalize the legal framework, the agency drafting the project has determined that, as a first step, regulations on personal identification numbers should be included in the draft Law on Civil Registration. This will serve as the basis for developing specific legal documents regulating personal identification numbers and the mechanism for issuing and managing them.

Personal identification numbers serve as the basis for creating various types of documents.
in a citizen's card.

Specifically, the personal identification number is a 12-digit number established from the National Population Database, assigned to each Vietnamese citizen from the time of birth registration and associated with them until death. It remains unchanged throughout their lifetime (even if a citizen renounces/is stripped of Vietnamese citizenship, or regains/acquires Vietnamese citizenship, the personal identification number does not change), is unique to each individual, and is used to identify citizen information data in the National Population Database and other specialized databases.

Initially, the Ministry of Public Security will be the focal point assisting the Government in managing the personal identification number database (based on the personal identification number database that the Government has assigned the Ministry of Public Security to develop and manage).

In terms of legal validity, the personal identification number is issued to each citizen upon birth registration from the date the Law on Civil Status came into effect. For citizens who registered their birth before the Law on Civil Status came into effect, the personal identification number is issued when carrying out procedures for new issuance, exchange, or replacement of identity cards or permanent residence registration. The personal identification number is recorded on the birth certificate and identity card; this number does not change throughout the citizen's lifetime; a personal identification number issued to one citizen cannot be used to issue to another citizen.

The personal identification number is the primary number used to accurately identify citizens in the National Population Database, serving the management requirements of various sectors and fields. It is also used as a basis for linking personal information in sectoral and field databases. Sectors and fields manage their own databases using the personal identification number to connect and access citizen information from the National Population Database, ensuring information consistency.

District and provincial police have the authority to issue identification numbers to citizens who registered their birth before the Law on Civil Status came into effect when they register their permanent residence or apply for a new, replacement, or updated identity card. Commune-level People's Committees issue personal identification numbers to newborns upon birth registration from the date the Law on Civil Status came into effect. When registering a birth on the national population database system, a new citizen identification number will be generated, which civil status officers will then use to record on the birth certificate. This identification number data is the primary information used to identify and link other citizen information.

According to preliminary calculations by the Ministry of Justice, providing personal identification numbers instead of requiring the declaration of personal information, and applying information technology to administrative procedures, will save time in filling out information, estimated at over 461 billion VND per year. The corresponding cost for photocopying and certifying documents for these administrative procedures is approximately 4,780 billion VND per year, while saving 2,201 billion VND per year when handling procedures at four levels of state administrative agencies by reducing photocopying and certification activities.

According to the draft plan, the issuance of citizen identification numbers will be implemented from June 2013 to May 2014.

Furthermore, the establishment of a national population database is a centralized database containing basic information about citizens, used for searching citizen information when handling administrative procedures, replacing the need to present citizen documents when conducting administrative transactions with state administrative agencies. This database will meet the requirements for providing basic information about citizens to individuals and organizations upon request, while ensuring the confidentiality of citizens' privacy.

The project to build a national population database is expected to be implemented from June to December 2013.

Throughout their lives, citizens may possess approximately 20 types of documents. Ten of these documents have a relatively wide range of applications and are frequently used in social life: birth certificate, household registration book, identity card, passport, personal tax identification number card, social insurance book, health insurance card, driver's license, marriage certificate, and death certificate.

Related to the 10 types of documents mentioned above, there are approximately over 70 administrative procedures. With a population of nearly 90 million, the number of public administrative transactions between citizens and administrative and public service agencies in our country averages about 600,000 transactions per day. A common feature is that almost all administrative procedures are carried out manually and require citizens to prove their identity by presenting or submitting copies or certified copies of documents; the files for carrying out administrative procedures, as well as the results of these procedures, are not shared or used jointly, thus creating an administrative burden of thousands of billions of VND per year for individuals and organizations participating in administrative transactions.

According to (Dan Tri) - LH