Vietnam pilots issuance of digital birth, death certificates

Updated: 16:31, 20/04/2023

The justice ministry began the trial issuance of digital birth and death certificates in certain localities this week before issuing them nationwide in June.

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Nguyen Thanh Hai, head of the Department of Civil Status, Citizenship and Certification at the Ministry of Justice, said on Wednesday that 223 digital birth certificates and 31 digital death certificates had been issued in Hanoi and the nearby Ha Nam Province since Monday.

Digital forms of a birth (L) and death certificate.

After a month-long trial, the justice ministry will evaluate its results before issuing digital certificates nationwide in June.

When people want to have a digital birth or death certificate issued, they will be provided with both a digital and a paper form. The digital certificates would be sent via email or another digital medium.

Hai said the trial was conducted as part of the justice ministry’s efforts to synchronize data in the national database. Digital certificates will be convenient for people boarding flights as they will not have to show personnel paper documents.

Policies regarding the usage of digital forms of civil registration have existed since 2022, but so far only Hanoi and Ha Nam have begun such trials.

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