The Electronic Identification awareness campaign was in Beka this week.
There was healthy debate by participants aboutthe advantages and disadvantages ofthe system.
A collective consensus thatthe E-ID system isthe way to go was made. The churches and ex-combatants were identiflied as vital communication links to take awareness tothe rural population.
The first thingthe E-ID Publicity team did when in Beka was to maketheir presence known. Despitethe late notice aboutthe E-ID workshopthere was a good turnout of participants. They representedthe churches, ex-combatants, headquarters, education sector andthe three regions.
They listened attentively as E-ID Project Director and deputy statistician Roko Kolowa explainedthe EID system.
Huawei’s Raymond Albert explainedthe technical aspects. Besicallythe E-ID solution comprises two elements. A photograph and a fingerprint scan.
That will be kept in a centralise data bank inthe nation’s capital. The ambitious project aims to getthe entirPNG population from 17 years and abover registered.
The churches neededthe assurance thatthe project was not associated withthe mark ofthe beatst or 666. Kolowa assured it wasn’t,the system has been used in countries like Malaysia for twenty years.
One participant was sceptical, asking aboutthe negative side. Raymond gavethe Malaysian experience when credit ratings are monitored, and Mr Kolowa stressedthe benefits outweighedthe negatives.
After much debate,the general consensus bythe Bougainvilleans was that it was a good system.
The last part ofthe workshop was a SWOT analysis where Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats were discussed.Infrastructure capacity and accessibility were some ofthe challenges.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=DgNtGtxSipY%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque%26showinfo%3D0%26showsearch%3D0%26rel%3D0
