Premier signs off on new identification card design

NEW FUNCTIONALITY: A source said that the new card would display significantly less information, but an embedded chip would allow it to provide eight new benefits

By Lee Hsin-fang and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer





A redesigned national identification card has been endorsed by Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and is to be presented at a meeting of the Executive Yuan today for official approval, a source said yesterday.

The new version is to feature the Republic of China flag and was designed to better protect personal information, the source said, adding that it has an embedded chip to make it more difficult to forge.

Whether to include the flag was a subject of debate between Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) in March during a discussion of the redesign.

Samples of new national identification cards are shown in an image on the Ministry of the Interior’s Web site. Screengrab from the Ministry of the Interior Web site

The cost of replacing existing national ID cards was estimated at NT$400 million (US$12.8 million), the source said, adding that the chip would enable the new card to provide more functionality.

Visually, the new card is to display significantly less personal information, showing only the cardholder’s name, birth date, marital status and card number, the source said.

“Republic of China (Taiwan) Identity Card” is to be prominently displayed at the top of the front face, along with the Chinese characters for “Republic of China national identification card,” they said.

The left side of the front face is to feature the cardholder’s name and birth date in Chinese and English, as well as their ID card number, with their picture on the right side above a reflective outline of Taiwan, the source said.

The back of the card would display marital status, as well as the issuance and expiration dates, they said.

The source said that the card is to provide eight new benefits: easy identification of real and forged cards through a key system that could also be interfaced over the Internet; the ability to link to other information over the Internet, such as health insurance and driver’s license records; the capacity to register for services electronically at a kiosk or online to reduce paper consumption and improve efficiency; better protection of personal information through encrypted electronic storage; quick access to personal records protected by a password; access to smart government services for better interaction; an anti-forgery system that includes hardware and software components; and reduced cost and risk for entrepreneurs.