Minister of Information Society and Administration Damjan Mancevski, Finance Minister Nina Angelovska and “Mastercard” Senior Vice President Charles Walton signed Friday a cooperation memorandum on digital identity.

In the future, smartphone cameras will be used for personal identification when signing contracts for payment cards, customer service with telecommunications operators or when receiving public services. The tool will be created in collaboration with “MasterCard”, claiming that the system will be secure and that there can no abuse of personal data.

We went through rigorous testing of biometrics and what’s important is that the system does not store information about people, which means there is no database that can be hacked, “Mastercard” Senior Vice President Charles Walton said during today’s signing of the cooperation memorandum.

With this tool, according to Minister of Information and Administration Damjan Mancevski, the person’s physical presence will no longer be needed, and smartphone cameras will replace the pen for signature.

He added that five free subscriptions to electronic services  in the first 12 months of launching the action plan are envisaged for the first 150,000 users of Uslugi.gov.mk. The realization of this project, as he explained, will cost the state nothing, while “MasterCard” will allocate about three million euros.

A working group has been set up by all relevant institutions, and Minister of Finance Nina Angelovska expects the solution to be prepared and made available to the citizens in the coming period.

There are many benefits, but also challenges and risks. Successful implementation of such a project requires strong inter-section cooperation, a will for change, building awareness and capacities above all in the administration and strengthening the digital skills of the population. Whether a solution will be adopted depends on how easy it is to use, Angelovska said.