China Eximbank provides $77.3 million loan for Electronic ID Card Project

Project narrative

On October 11, 2013, the Chinese Government and the Government of Papua New Guinea signed a preferential loan framework agreement for the Electronic ID Card Project. The agreement was signed by National Planning Minister, Charles Abel, and the Chinese Ambassador to Papua New Guinea, Qiu Bohua, at Vulupindi Haus in Port Moresby. Then, in November 2013, China Eximbank and the Government of Papua New Guinea signed a $77,339,883.50 loan agreement for the Electronic ID Card Project. The estimated borrowing terms of the loan were as follows: a 19.8333-year maturity, a 5.333-year grace period, and a 2% interest rate. The proceeds of the loan were to be used by the borrower to finance a commercial contract with Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., which was signed in 2012. The purpose of the project was to build a new ID card data center and card-making center in the Port of Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea; establish a national population database, population information and electronic ID management system, 27 fixed information collection points, 400 mobile information collection points; produce 5 million ID cards; and provide a series of supporting services including data collection vehicles, technical consultation, system installation, personnel training, and maintenance. The overarching aim of the project was to create a trustworthy and secure biometric identity verification system so that all citizens could be registered electronically with biometric identification based on voters’ fingerprints. It was also envisaged that the biometric identity verification system could be used to support National Census, electronic voting, e-passport and general data and statistics. Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. was the contractor responsible for implementation. The project officially commenced on February 25, 2015, when Prime Minister O'Neill became the first PNG citizen to register in the database. Then, on March 26, 2015, the new ID card center opened and Prime Minister O'Neill became the first PNG citizen to receive a card. The biometric system technology was fully complete by 2017, and was rolled out to 11 provinces. While the technology was intended for use in the 2017 election, registration proved difficult. In 2018, DevPolicy reported that the project had “only registered a fraction of citizens. This project also faced allegations of mismanagement of funds in September 2015. The allegations were raised in a petition sent to the Minister for National Planning and Monitoring, Charles Abel, by a group of 68 employees of the Electronic ID Card Project and the National Statistical Office. The petition called for an audit of the use of project funds between 2013 and 2015 and an audit of National Statistical Office funds. The petition also called for the removal of Roko Koloma, the Director of the Electronic ID Card Project and the Acting National Statistician, as well as Civil Registrar-General Dickson Kiragi. The Government of Papua New Guinea’s National Executive Council later moved the Electronic ID Card Project away from the National Statistical Office and approved the establishment of a special project management unit under the department to manage its implementation.