Removing household registration books and identity cards still awaits until 2020

That is the confirmation of Lieutenant-General Tran Van Ve, Acting Director of the General Police Department under Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security.

On Nov 7, the Ministry of Public Security held a press conference themed on the simplification of administrative procedures for citizens in order to answer the public's questions about the plan of removing household registration books and identity cards.

At the press conference, Lieutenant General Tran Van Ve said that such move does not mean abandoning the citizen management but only replacing the manual paper-based management system into the modern one, with a view to simplify administrative procedures.

Regarding the roadmap of abolishing household registration book and ID card, Ve said that the Government assigned the Ministry of Public Security to implement the project within 2 - 3 years. As the national population database is completed, line ministries will use this information resource to track citizens.

Ministry of Public Security is expected to complete the national database by 2020.

Ve said that when the national database replaces the household registration book, each citizen will have her/his own personal identification number.

Then, citizens who come to state agencies to solve administrative procedures only need to provide three basic information including their full name, identification number and place of residence.

According to Ve, the removal of the people's identity card is not properly understood as citizens are still required to have personal documents.

There are three types of identity cards that are currently in use and of equal value: old identification (9 digits), new ID card (12 digits) and citizen identification card.