Sri Lanka to introduce digital wallet for ID documents as public payments digitized

Citizens in Sri Lanka will be able to carry around some of their personal documents such as passports, birth and examination certificates as well as marriage certificates in digital wallets on their smartphones or other mobile devices in under three years.

This will be possible as the country’s Minister of Youth and Sports, Minister of Development Co-ordination and Monitoring and State Minister of Digital Technology and Enterprise Development, Namal Rajapaksa, has announced the imminent introduction of a digital wallet for the storage of digital IDs and other documents, writes online newspaper Colombo Page.

The digital wallet will be available in the next 30 months, the minister announced.

Making the announcement during a recent ceremony to launch the LANKA QR code for mobile payments introduced by the Central Bank in the city of Gampaha, Rajapaksa also explained other projects which are part of the country’s digital transformation objectives.

Rajapaksa said at least a hundred municipal councils and Pradeshiya Sabhas (local legislative bodies for municipalities) will all be digitized and steps will be taken to ensure that transactions such as the payment of shop and land rents and public taxes are done by digital means using the LANKA QR code.

The Minister also mentioned that the Colombo administration has set a timeframe of 2025 by which all major public transactions in the country will have to be conducted using digital methods. He added that the transition to digital is even more urgent given the challenges that have come with the coronavirus pandemic.

A project to digitize Katunayake Airport was also highlighted by the Minister, who said the initiative is principally aimed at facilitating and improving the airport experience for passengers.

Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga, who also spoke during the ceremony, was quoted as saying there is a plan to popularize the use of the newly launched LANKA QR code for payments within the tourism industry.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital economy  |  digital identity  |  digital wallet  |  government services  |  identity document  |  mobile app  |  national ID  |  secure transactions  |  Sri Lanka