SingPass app can soon be used as digital identity
Residents will be able to access services in govt and private sectors more easily
The manual task of keying in one's personal details when registering to visit a relative in hospital or buying a service at a roadshow may soon be a thing of the past when Singapore residents can use their SingPass Mobile app to scan a Quick Response (QR) code instead.
The new tool developed by the Government, SG-Verify, can help businesses save time and gain better access to government-verified data when it is launched by December.
It is the next step in Singapore's national digital identity (NDI) system, a single digital identity that residents can use to access services across both government and private sectors.
In an update on digital government services yesterday, the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) said: "By the third quarter of FY2019, the Government will launch SG-Verify, a facility for businesses to perform secure identity verification and data transfer through QR scanning."
This will provide businesses an alternative for visitor registration and access, customer acquisition at roadshows and in other cases that require identification, GovTech said.
On the sidelines of the annual Smart Nation and Digital Government industry briefing, GovTech's senior director of the NDI Kwok Quek Sin told reporters that organisations that could benefit from this new offering include charities, banks and clubs that require members to sign up.
Also by December, an updated version of the Moments of Life app will be available and include new services catering to seniors.
The app is a digital platform for services and information that is currently aimed at parents and caregivers of young children.
Introduced last June, it was meant to help parents avoid the hassle of going to different government agencies to complete forms and providing the same information repeatedly for services.
SMART STREET LAMPS
GovTech also said yesterday that the Government will launch its trial for smart street lamps in Geylang and the one-north business park in Buona Vista some time between October and December.
This Lamppost-as-a-Platform trial will gather surveillance information to give government agencies the lay of the land, allowing them to detect potential problems and respond quickly to incidents such as unruly crowds, train breakdowns and traffic congestion.
The agency also said it had conducted a new survey which showed there is greater satisfaction with government digital services.
It found government-to-citizen satisfaction had increased from 73 per cent to 78 per cent year on year last year, while government-to-business satisfaction went up from 64 per cent to 69 per cent.
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