Ukraine exports its digital ID technology

By Cindy Harper

Ukraine’s government services smartphone app, Diia, has become so “successful” that other countries are interested in replicating it. One of those countries is Estonia, one of the world’s most digitized countries.

During the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Estonia’s digital development team showcased mRiik, an app for accessing government services built on Ukraine’s Diia app.

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and minister of digital transformation Mykhailo Fedorov confirmed that the team behind Diia had shared the app’s code with Estonia.

“One of the most digital countries in the world is adopting Ukrainian technologies and experience,” Fedorov said. “With a unified national mobile platform, Estonia will be able to save on development costs in the future.”

Diia, which was launched in 2020, enables Ukrainian residents to digitally access government services and store digitized versions of their identification documents including, driver’s licenses and passports.

After Russia invaded Ukraine, the application was updated to allow Ukrainians to change their address, access aid, get social support, and other important services. The country secured agreements with neighboring countries to accept digital identification in place of physical documents to help refugees who might have misplaced their documents during evacuations.

According to Ukraine’s ministry of digital transformation, about 50% of the country’s population, 18.5 million, use the app.

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