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According to the Head of the Migration and Citizenship Service of the RA Ministry of Internal Affairs Armen Ghazaryan, on January 1, 2017, the contract signed with the Polish Security Printing Works/ Polska Wytwornia Papierow Wartosciowych (PWPW) company, which serves the RA biometric passport and identification card system and supplies blanks, expired, due to which works were carried out to elaborate a technical task for the purpose of issuing biometric passports and identification cards in the RA, implementing an automated system of modernized public certificates infrastructure, maintenance and transfer.

It was noted that along with these works, amendments were regularly made to the Laws on Citizen's Passport and on Identification Cards.

Later, taking into consideration the policy adopted by the RA Government, the RA Government decided to go for more global reforms: to introduce not only a system of providing biometric documents in the Republic of Armenia, but also to increase the possibilities of providing electronic services to the population.

The Head of the Migration and Citizenship Service of the RA Ministry of Internal Affairs mentioned that the package of drafts on Making Amendments and Addendum to the Law on the Passport of the Citizen of the Republic of Armenia and on Making Amendments to the Law on Identification Cards proposes to repeal Article 9.2 and 9.3 on the RA Citizen's Passport.

It was also mentioned that it is planned to introduce a new system of issuing documents containing biometric data in the RA, providing such solutions that it will have the opportunity to provide digital services to the population. In the framework of the works carried out in this direction, international consultants were selected, who have already started the studies in order to present proposals in line with the needs of the Republic of Armenia. The security requirements for the implementation of the new system of identification cards and biometric passports and the framework of the competition were debated, with which it is designed to complete the competition package for the implementation of the new system of biometric passports and identification cards of the RA citizens.

The deputy of Armenia Faction Gegham Manukyan asked when an RA citizen can get a biometric passport.

In response, it was noted that until the competition is not held, it is not possible to give an exact answer to the question.

Addressing the issue, the Secretary of the Council of the Information Systems Agency of Armenia (IRS) Nerses Yeritsyan noted that the entire process is carried out by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It was pointed out that as of now detailed technical and economic analyzes have been made. International companies are interested in that field, now the pre-qualification documents are being summarized based on their proposals. There will be a two-stage competition, the participants must be pre-qualified, and then a competition will be held between small groups.

According to Nerses Yeritsyan, the pre-qualification competition will be announced before the end of the year, after that it will take another three to four months for these companies to submit their proposals. “We will have a new system in 2025,” the Secretary of the Council of the Information Systems Agency of Armenia (IRS) said.

The co-rapporteur Vahagn Aleksanyan called on his colleagues to vote for it.

As a result of debate, the package of drafts was endorsed. At the proposal of the Government, it will be debated in the upcoming NA sitting within 24 hours.

The legislative initiative was debated and adopted in the first reading at the regular sitting of the NA Standing Committee on Defense and Security on November 6.