Philippines, Malaysia explore cross-border digital identity verification

The Philippines and Malaysia are exploring cross-border digital identity verification to make access to services faster, more secure, and more convenient for citizens.

The Philippine Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Malaysia’s My Blockchain Infrastructure Sdn. Bhd. (MBI) and Zetrix Philippines Inc.

The agreement will explore interoperability between the two countries’ national digital identity systems and enable secure verification of government-issued digital credentials across borders.

The partnership supports the Philippines’ digital transformation agenda, addressing a common challenge faced by people who study, work, travel, or do business abroad — repeated identity checks across different systems.

The MoU has the parties collaborating on technical development, knowledge sharing and real-world digital identity use cases. The initiative will focus on creating standards-based systems with strong privacy, cybersecurity and national security safeguards.

The framework could reduce repeated verification requirements for Filipinos accessing services in Malaysia and for Malaysians in the Philippines if implemented. Potential use cases include employment onboarding, banking, travel transactions, business registration and access to government services.

“This collaboration allows us to make verification of government-issued credentials more secure and efficient across systems,” said DICT Secretary Henry R. Aguda. “More importantly, it helps remove unnecessary friction so citizens can access services faster and with greater confidence wherever they are.”

Officials from both countries said the initiative is a step toward building trusted digital infrastructure that supports cross-border mobility, trade, and public services while maintaining strong protections for privacy and data security. If successful, the partnership could serve as a model for digital identity interoperability across Southeast Asia.

Malaysia’s MyDigital ID expansion continues 

Malaysia continues to expand adoption of its national digital identity platform MyDigital ID.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said MyDigital ID has been integrated with 114 federal government online services. This includes MyJPJ, MyPTPTN, SPA9, and MyBayar PDRM.

MyDigital ID has now integrated 19 state government online applications, with 28 more integrations under development.

“MyDigital ID’s system architecture will enable government agencies to easily and quickly implement integration without requiring new hardware or additional software procurement,” the deputy prime minister said in a parliamentary written reply last month (via The Star).

As of the end of June, around 12 million Malaysians had registered for MyDigital ID while total registrations, including renewals and cancellations, reached 16 million.

Article Topics

cross border identity verification  |  DICT  |  digital identity  |  Malaysia  |  MyDigital ID  |  national ID  |  Philippines  |  Zetrix