Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte praised India’s Unique Identification Number (UID) or Aadhaar and expressed interest in the system.
Preeti Saran, MEA’s secretary, said on Thursday, 25 January, that the Philippines President was “keen on financial inclusion and fighting corruption” in his country.
Since Aadhaar system is designed to root out corruption and Duterte has been fighting corruption in his nation, Manila’s interest in the system is expected.
The discussion on Aadhaar happened during the bilateral meeting between Duterte and PM Narendra Modi on the evening of Wednesday, 24 January.
PM Modi told Duterte that India will be “happy” to share its knowledge. Manila has also sent a special delegation specifically to understand the system.
Philippines is among 20 countries which have expressed an interest in Aadhaar. Russia, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore have all expressed their keenness on creating a system like India’s UID model.
The UID aims to eliminate duplicate and fake identities and make citizen verification easy and cost-effective.
Around 111 crore Aadhaar numbers have been issued to Indian residents till now. But the system has also been criticised over privacy and data security concerns.