EC Expands NID Services to Three More Countries

Bangladesh's Election Commission (EC) is expanding National Identity Card (NID) services for citizens living abroad, with Germany, Spain and Hong Kong set to join the programme. The expansion will officially take the number of countries covered to 20. However, including Sweden, Norway and Finland, where services are already operating, the initiative will effectively cover 22 countries.

Officials of the EC's NID Division confirmed the development on Tuesday, November 3.

According to officials, NID services are currently available in 17 countries. The commission has decided to introduce the services in Germany, Spain and Hong Kong.

Technical teams are scheduled to visit Hong Kong and Germany during November, while a team will travel to Spain in the first week of December.

More than 14 million expatriates across 40 countries

The EC has identified 40 countries with significant Bangladeshi expatriate populations as potential areas for expanding overseas NID services.

To identify these destinations, the commission collected information from several organisations, including the Election Commission, Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare, Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA).

According to the collected information, more than 14 million Bangladeshis live across the 40 countries.

Saudi Arabia has the largest Bangladeshi expatriate population, with approximately 4.05 million people.

New Zealand has the smallest population among the listed countries, with around 2,500 Bangladeshis.

Countries covered by the initiative

The 40-country list includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Libya, Sudan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Italy, Hong Kong, Egypt, Brunei, Mauritius, Iraq, the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, Greece, Spain, Germany, South Africa, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Brazil, China, Indonesia, the Maldives, New Zealand, Russia, Turkey and Cyprus.

The addition of Germany, Spain and Hong Kong is expected to expand access to NID registration and related services for Bangladeshis living overseas.

The expansion also represents a further step towards improving identity verification and access to government services for expatriate citizens.

//DBTech/BMR/SME/MVNO//