A new electronic register will be created to record data on all Cayman Islands residents as a precursor to the creation and issue of national identity cards
As we reported earlier with the British Virgin Islands, a new electronic system has also been proposed for the Cayman Islands in order help that territory’s recordkeeping processes by creating a digital record of all residents as well as their immigration status. This move is part of a wider plan to implement a national identity card system next year.
Commerce Minister Joey Hew yesterday announced that work on the register of natural persons, part of the push for an integrated government system, is progressing. The new electronic register is the first step and will issue a unique identification number to each person which will be used across different government agencies and will help to reduce the number of errors and misidentifications that currently occur. The creation of the register is also a key step towards establishing an e-conveyancing platform.
The minister said he believed it would also help to address the current challenge faced by some persons entitled to Caymanian status to prove their eligibility when applying for work as it should eliminate the need for specialist letters and other corroborating evidence.
Once the system is functional, the cards will carry both identity and voter registration data, and may eventually also contain biometric Information.
It is hoped that the register will be operational by the second quarter of 2020.
