'Once-Only' policy to end repetitive data submission: PM

The government is working to establish an integrated digital service system based on the "Once-Only" policy to reduce the need for citizens to repeatedly submit the same information or documents to different government offices, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman told parliament today (9 September).

Under the proposed system, information provided by a citizen once could be reused for other relevant government services, subject to legal requirements, data privacy safeguards and necessary consent.

The prime minister disclosed the plan in a written response to a question from reserved women's seat lawmaker Sultana Ahmed on the Cabinet Division.

Responding to a question about the "One Government Digital Service" framework, Tarique said the initiative would establish the National Data Exchange Platform, Unified Digital Identity (ekID) and an interoperability framework to connect government services.

These systems would reduce the need for citizens to submit the same information or documents repeatedly when applying for different government services, he said.

The prime minister said important citizen services provided by various ministries and government offices are already available digitally through the MyGov platform.

So far, 427 end-to-end digital services from 29 ministries and 83 government offices have been launched, he said.

The government has also taken an initiative to establish the National Data Exchange Platform to enable secure and rapid information sharing among government offices.

Under the platform, data repositories and digital services of different government offices will be connected through application programming interfaces (APIs) and designated data standards.

This will increase data reuse, reduce service delivery time and costs, and help provide more integrated services to citizens, he said.