ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced on Wednesday that it will digitialize its civil and public services in coordination with a German company. The KRG’s Ministry of Interior signed a contract with Germany-based Mühlbauer Group at an event in Erbil on Wednesday to start the process of online drivers’ license issuances and vehicle registration. “From next year, every citizen will own a digital identification,” said KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani at the ceremony, describing the digitalization of public services as “not a choice but a necessity” to reduce paperwork in the governmental institutions and “advance the technological infrastructure.” The KRG’s ninth cabinet is working towards digitizing all public services in the governmental establishments and institutions, in efforts to offer greater transparency and efficiency. “I presume that in the next 12 months we can provide a basis for digitizing the citizen’s identifications,” Hiwa Afandi, head of the KRG Department of Information Technology, told Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman. “In 2022, most services will be digital.” Afandi noted that the digitalization of services is a process that “has a beginning but not an ending.” KRG Interior Minister Reber Ahmed during the ceremony announced the government’s plan to hold a conference to “review the rules and regulations of the traffic” system. “It will pave the way to digitalize the Ministry of Interior and the entire establishments and institutions of the Kurdistan Region,” he added A number of top KRG officials voiced their support for digitizing the ministries at a virtual conference on the Region’s economic development this week, also citing the need to reduce bureaucracy.
