Today, a working meeting was held with the representatives of Mastercard, through a video conference, where the solution for digital identification of the citizens of the Republic of Northern Macedonia was presented.
The working meeting was attended by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Northern Macedonia Zoran Zaev, Minister of Information Society and Administration Jeton Shaqiri, Minister of Finance Fatmir Besimi, as well as senior representatives of the company Mastercard, representatives of the NBRM and representatives of the Financial Intelligence Unit.
“This month marks one year since the signing of the memorandum for establishing a digital identification service for the citizens of the Republic of Northern Macedonia. We can implement state-of-the-art systems for e-services, invest in equipment and software, but without means of electronic identification, we send citizens to the counters as they did decades ago. We live in a time when technology is changing our lives for the better and we should all contribute to that. With the establishment of the digital identification service, the citizens from their homes will apply for the services in the country and the services of the companies in the private sector”, said the Minister Jeton Shaqiri.
Minister Shaqiri pointed out that, using the electronic identification service, public institutions and companies in the private sector will surely know the identity of the person who requested the service and that the same person confirms the implementation of that service, without the possibility of any fraud.
“Digitalization is a process that can create conditions for greater economic growth, growth that we urgently need. Within the Strategy for Recovery and Accelerated Growth (SmartER Growth), according to which we act in order to accelerate economic growth in the country, we recognize and highly value the digitalization of the economy and public services as a prerequisite for accelerated inclusive and sustainable growth. The concept of digital economy is a system of institutional concepts and contains achievements of progressive technologies, and the ultimate goal is to increase the effectiveness of total production by optimizing processes and reducing costs. It is an economy based on professional knowledge, market knowledge, but also creativity and innovative society, “said Minister Besimi.
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Northern Macedonia, Zoran Zaev, emphasized that in this way our country will be part of the world trends:
“With this opportunity, we are making a big and important step in the digitalization of our own identity, which is a prerequisite for many secure network services in the country and in the world.” Namely, the documents that will be signed through this application will be recognized not only in our country, but in all countries in Europe and wherever the electronic ID card service of Mastercard is sold. The solution developed by Mastercard can be used by institutions, but also by business entities that want to take advantage of technology, introduce digitalization of their processes and replace paper and pen with electronic documents, electronic signature and approval via smartphones. “Digital identification will enable any process or procedure that requires a signature and personal presence to be done from home, work or anywhere via mobile phones,” said the Prime Minister of the Republic of Northern Macedonia Zoran Zaev.
This is the first service for electronic identification of citizens and will be available in two months.
Nikola Nikolov from MISA, coordinator of the working group for implementation of the memorandum with Mastercard for the establishment of a digital identification service, and then Paolo Batiston from Mastercard, who is the executive vice president for services in Europe, participated in today’s working meeting. Ivan Hadzov, Business Manager for Digital Product Development for Northern Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania at Mastercard, as well as Georgi Dimitrov, Member of the Board of Directors of Evrotrust.