MORE than 120,000 certificates for births, deaths, and marriages have been digitised at the Fiji’s digital Births, Deaths & Marriages (BDM) Registry, according to Digital Transformation and ICT lead at Digital Fiji Avish Naidu.
Speaking at the Pacific Fiber Conference and Training yesterday, Mr Naidu said the BDM system, implemented in 2018, was a very adventurous decision but has since proven its value.
“All our birth certificates, death certificates and marriage certificates are now generated directly from a secure digital record,” he said.
“To date, I just checked a couple of weeks ago, we have done over 120,000 certificates generated through the digital system. So this means that 120,000 births, deaths, and marriages have been recorded in a digital platform, and we are able to have this available to us anytime.”
Mr Naidu noted that this data can then be used across government to provide better services.
The Registrar of Companies system has also been 100 per cent online since its full digitisation, handling business registration and updates.
Mr Naidu said these two core registries – the BDM and Registrar of Companies systems – have created two powerful national databases that are referred to as the people hub and the entity hub.
“They are connected to a data exchange platform that acts as a “single source of truth”.
This digital infrastructure proved quite pivotal during COVID-19, Mr Naidu said, as it enabled the first digital immunisation recording and providing targeted assistance to businesses.
“Imagine the whole country getting immunised through a manual system.”
Mr Naidu explained that generating a single vaccine certificate from manual records could have taken a couple of days.
He also discussed Fiji’s broader national digital strategy, which was developed in partnership with the Singaporean government.
“The five-year strategy, running from 2025 to 2030, is aligned with the national development plan.
“Its vision is transforming Fiji into an innovative, cyber resilient and digitally empowered society, positioning Fiji as one of the leading digital companies in not only the Pacific, but in the Asia region.”
Mr Naidu said the strategy aims for 80 per cent of key government services to be available online by 2030.
“It focuses on five thematic areas: digital infrastructure and cyber resilience, digital inclusion and empowerment, innovation-led economic growth, smart governance and digital public services, and sustainable development and global digital cooperation.”
Digital Fiji is Government’s digital transformation programme, set up to implement a number of government applications, enhance the overall ICT infrastructure and build and develop capacity in digital transformation in government.