The Thai government's plan to issue Java-based national ID cards to its 61million citizens by next month has been called "wishful thinking" by an analyst.
Dion Wiggins, an analyst with research firm Gartner has told infocomms minister Surapong Suebwonglee and other officials that the smart ID card project lacked adequate planning, according to a report in the Bangkok Post.
In addition, the project's officials have not conducted government, private sector, public and industry expert consultation, the Bangkok Post reported. Introducing a smart ID card without such consultation would risk limiting the card's usefulness, and make it not worth much more than the current citizen ID card.
Wiggins cited funding as the single largest problem with such e-government initiatives, because of the "silo" structure of government funding, with each ministry or department having their own budgets and initiatives.
In the light of these shortcomings, Wiggins suggested putting off the launch of the project to give the government time to review the plans, gather information on requirements from the stakeholders. Standards and technologies could also be examined during this period, while vendors should be sourced carefully. Wiggins predicted planning and launching to take one or two years.
In one of the most ambitious Java-based smart card deployment schemes in the world, the Thai government plans to issue the high-tech national ID card to all 61 million citizens. The card will contain biometric identification, as well as insurance, tax and welfare benefit information. The scheme is expected to be launched later this year.
