Asean digital gateway, travel wallet launched

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Borneo Bulletin/Asia News Network): The Asean Business and Investment Summit (ABIS) 2021 on Monday (Oct 25) welcomed a launch of the Asean Digital Gateway and Travel Wallet project, aimed at facilitating a safer, seamless and standardised approach to resuming regional travel.

The initiative was announced by Chair of the Asean Business and Investment Summit 2021 and CEO of Dynamik Technologies Haslina Taib (pic), as the second legacy project by the Asean Business Advisory Council.

By leveraging digital technology, the solution will address common issues faced by travellers such as carrying or misplacing multiple documents, concerns over sharing data internationally or risk being turned away at borders for inconsistent health protocols across different countries.

Haslina attributed the solution to the joint effort between the public and private sectors in the region, in response to the Asean Declaration on the Asean Travel Corridor Framework adopted in the last Asean Summit 2020.

The Asean Travel Wallet app will provide travellers with a value-add and easy-to-use mobile experience on their smartphones, to obtain, access, store and display required health and vaccination records for quick and hassle-free verification at destination countries.

Only relevant public data, such as citizen’s identification, vaccination type, date, and validity, and/or Covid recovery date, will be issued via a back-end national administration dashboard to each Wallet holder in the form of QR code. The same set of data is then shared to the Asean Digital Gateway.

Haslina said, “The Asean Digital Gateway is an open and shared platform that allows each Asean member state to control its own citizens’ data, while issuing only a public key.

“This will be encrypted as genuine, tamper-proof credentials on private permissioned blockchain.

“The Gateway drives standardisation of cross-border and business entry protocols, while respecting data privacy and protecting interests. Each subscribing member country autonomously integrates its own national Covid response applications and manages its own verifiers, both from the public and private sector”.