Thirteen per cent of young people in Ukraine consider digital technology development to be one of the greatest achievements of the government in 2021. This includes the mobile application “Diia”.
Launched in February 2020, Diia is hailed as “the State in a smartphone” according to Mikhail Fedorov, Head of the Ministry of Digital Transformation.
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Today, Ukraine is a world leader in digital document development, and the first country to legislate electronic passports as being equivalent in status to traditional biometric paper documents.
Upon its launch, Diia contained two documents in the application – an electronic driver’s license and a technical passport. Today, users have access to 15 digital documents and 12 services.
According to Mstislav Banik, Head of Electronic Services Development at the Ministry of Finance, new technologies are already in the works. For example, a recent update in the appendix now enables a court summons to be issued through Diia.
What is Diia today?
Currently, the appendix contains documents such as a person’s ID card (citizen’s passport), foreign biometric passport, student card, driver’s license, vehicle registration certificate, vehicle insurance policy, tax number, birth certificate, international and domestic vaccination certificates, and PCR test or recovery certificate (as applicable).
In addition to the mobile application, there is also a web portal offering over 70 services. These include:
– COVID vaccination certificate
– Issuance of a construction passport
– Certificate of income
– Registration of residence
– Housing loan for migrants
– State registration of real estate rights
– Entry in the COVID-19 vaccination waiting list
– One-time financial assistance to insured persons and employees
– Get a medical certificate
– Assignment of pension
– Assignment of housing subsidy
According to Banik, “the goal of the Ministry of Digital Transformation is to make Ukraine the most convenient country in the world for citizens and businesses. Moreover these services are convenient and easy to access without having to visit offices or carry paper, and without the risk of corruption.” Banik added:
“Our common vision for the digital future of Ukraine is reflected in the words of the President's program 'Digital Country'.
Thanks to the application and the "Diia" portal, about 600,000 electronic services related to business registration have been provided this year alone.
"There are complaints, but we are responding"
Sometimes, users face problems such as documents not downloading or the application not functioning correctly. Many such comments can be found on the Ministry of Digital Transformation’s Facebook page.
IT expert Oleksandr Olshanskyi says there are still many issues which the development team should address, some of which can be due to the application and site being overloaded.
The Ministry explains that problems tend to occur most when a new function is launched but that they try to respond to all complaints.
"Following the example of the British government, the Ministry has set up an implementation department. Its purpose is to maintain constant contact with application users to analyze the problems that arise and to establish cooperation with public authorities and private companies." - Banik.
By 2024, the team has set itself the goal of bringing all official document services online. Banik said that the Ministry is already working on changes that will enable individuals to be able to change their residence permit and pay utility bills in the application and on the electronic portal.
The Ministry says the application is completely safe and secure
Currently, all services in the application are available only to Ukrainians. Only COVID-certificates are available for foreigners if they have a residence permit.
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