Vital Statistics and Police Records Unit Going Online Shortly

Michel Chebat

The country’s first National Digital Agenda was introduced in 2021 with a comprehensive plan to place Belize on the digital stage with the rest of the world. Since then, a host of government ministries and departments have stepped up to the plate to become digitized in order to make everyday processes that much easier and available online for the regular man and woman. All of this is spearheaded by the Ministry of e-Governance. Minister Chebat told News Five today that two of the most talked about services – those of the Vital Statistics Unite and the Belize Police Department – are now being upgraded to offer online services.

Michel Chebat, Minister of Public Utilities

“We all know the legendary problems that people face to try to get a birth certificate or a marriage certificate. So that is priority on our list. What we aim to do is to make sure that all our records from the V.S.U. are digitized so that people can access these services from any computer terminal anywhere across the country. I think that it is just correct that our people have equal access wherever they are and to bridge and to stop having to come into Belize City to be able to get one of these documents. So that is one of the big projects we’re working on. We’re also working also to digitize the police records to make that process a bit easier and more accessible as well.  One of the things that we’re looking at is the National I.D., which will transform the way we do business in this country. It will facilitate accessing service by the public and what we aim to do is to have a system where all of your data would be contained on an I.D. and we’re looking to have an electronic version of that I.D., so as to eliminate having to backing around a card. Also I am aware that there is going to be a card version for those who wish to have a card version.   Underlying all of this though is the legislation. To be able to put all of these changes we’re enacting on very strong footing, we’ve passed several legislations to do this. We’ve passed the Data Protections Act, the Data Sharing Act, and the Digital Government Act, which is critical for us because what that legislation does is sets parameters that all ministries must comply with so that if you go to one ministry, you can expect the same level of service at every ministry.   The effort we’ve made and the work we’ve done so far have been internationally recognized by the United Nations. Belize is now ranked number one thirty-three out of a hundred and ninety-three nations and we’ve seen our ranking improve since 2020 as a result of all the online services that we are now offering. That puts us in line with countries like Mexico, South Africa, Egypt – countries that have been involved in this process for a very long time.”