President Aliyev receives first biometric passport
By Nigar Orujova
President Ilham Aliyev was presented the first biometric passport of an Azerbaijani citizen on September 2.
The last few years saw the Azerbaijani government's considerable and effective efforts to ensure rapid economic development, improve the living standards and ensure people's social security, and remove bureaucratic barriers in state bodies. In this context, the launch of the ASAN service, an innovative agency aiming to make services more accessible for citizens, and application of other advanced services were of critical importance. The introduction of a biometric passport is one of such strides.
A special taskforce was set up to deal with making and introducing a biometric passport using the best experience of foreign companies.
Issuance of the new-generation biometric passports started in the country on September 2. Citizens can receive biometric passports in ten, five and one working days depending on the amount of the fee paid.
The new sample of biometric civil, official and diplomatic passports of Azerbaijan, approved by the presidential decree, was made public in July 2012.
Nine regional centers were established in order to produce and issue general passports with all the conditions provided for rendering high quality services.
The new passports will include information about the passport holder's facial features, as well as his finger and palm prints. Each passport will also include a personal identification number.
The biometric passport looks different from the previous passport with a special logo engraved on the cover for the identification of the electronic passport.
The first page of the biometric passport contains an electronic chip with a digital photo and data. The main advantage of biometric passports is that the border control in some countries has equipment that reads the data from the microchip.
This procedure reduces the entry of data regarding a person crossing the border. Currently, in many countries where electronic passports are checked at the border there are special lanes for travelers with electronic passports, which allows people to go through the passport check much faster.
Children cannot be included in the biometric passport. A personal passport is issued for every child at any age for traveling abroad.
Most countries are making a transition to the biometric system to step up measures to combat transnational crime, arms and drug trafficking and other serious crimes. Azerbaijan has passed a state program to establish a national biometric identification system. The program covers forming relevant legislative framework, creating information systems, ensuring information security, and issuing biometric passports.