T

he Home Ministry will run pilot programs of its Population Administration Information System (SIAK) in four cities.

Padang in West Sumatra, Makassar in South Sulawesi, Denpasar in Bali and Yogyakarta in Java, will trial the implementation of the citizenship identity number (NIK) system for all citizens.

"We have designed a plan for the identity number system," Home Minister Mardiyanto said Thursday.

"This year the SIAK pilot project will run in four cities, but will be gradually extended to other cities."

Mardiyanto was speaking after the signing of an agreement with the Agency of Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) chief, Marzan Azis Iskandar, designed to accelerate the development of the SIAK.

The agreement covers several activities including, providing guidance and familiarizing officials in charge of population issues to implement the system, preparing the necessary population data, developing the SIAK, monitoring and implementing the technology and conducting a technology audit.

"This system will be used to verify and check the validity of a citizen's identity, which will form the basis of the issuance of citizen documents such as passports, driving licenses, insurance policies and land certificates," Mardiyanto said.

He acknowledged that from the time the 2006 Law on Population Administration had been endorsed, his ministry had made plans to reach the deadline set by the law. The law stipulates that the NIK or single identity number system must be implemented within five years from when the law was passed.

The NIK is expected to consolidate citizens' data nationally, and biometric recognition will guarantee accurate identification and authenticate citizenship documents.

"In 2006-2007 we made preparations in several regions, while in 2008 we prepared the hardware," Mardiyanto said.

"We will start the pilot project this year in four cities and in 2010 we will develop the system in other regions and gradually perfect the system."

He said one of the obstacles of the process was to list primary population data, which continued to change in line with regional splits.

"At first *in 2006* we only had 400 regencies and cities nationwide, but now we have more than 500."

"We need to adjust the system to accommodate the regions."

Indonesia's geography and limited human resources were also factors that hampered the project, he added.

However, he was optimistic the project would fulfill the deadline stipulated by the law.

Marzan said that BPPT's Information and Communication Technology Center had provided technical guidance to ministry's officials to develop the SIAK, infrastructure network designs, and a data center at the ministry.

"We concentrated on developing the system and preparing the blueprint in 2006," he said.