Kazakhstan plans to abandon EDS to receive electronic services

NUR-SULTAN – The Kazakh government is planning to facilitate receiving electronic services by using one-time Short Message Service (SMS) passwords or single identification numbers rather than an electronic digital signature (EDS), said Civil Service Affairs Agency Chair Anar Zhailganova at a July 5 press conference.

“The agency has established that one of the factors hindering the development of electronic services is a prerequisite for the presence of an EDS. For many, it is difficult to obtain and use. This requires visiting the Population Service Centres (TsON), the availability of special software and computer specifications and periodic updates,” she said.

Most public services will be available in electronic format until the end of the year. The one-time SMS passwords or single identification numbers will subsequently serve as authentication methods.

“This is practiced in such advanced countries as the United Kingdom, France, South Korea and China. In Kazakhstan, SMS passwords are used only for 64 of the not-the-most-popular government services. Work will continue to reduce usage of digital signatures in exchange for a one-time password for all the services registry,” said Zhailganova.

In addition, the agency will exclude one-time certificates from the public services register to ease the process of receiving those services.

“We will work on the exclusion from the register of 62 types of certificates, extracts and documents that are necessary for submission as confirming information to other authorities. In this list there are the documents about absence of criminal record, temporary disability, presence or absence of real estate and extract from the medical record of the patient that are in demand,” she noted.

Zhailganova added the organisation will obtain these documents independently without burdening the population with additional time to collect them.


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