CHENNAI: The Union government’s Aadhaar programme may be facing legal hurdles in India for its ‘violation of privacy’ but it seems to have caught the fancy of the Philippines government.
The country is looking to implement a slightly modified version of Aadhaar, said Carlos Garcia Dominguez III, Philippines’ Secretary of Finance at a special lecture on ‘Achieving Goal 2 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals - Zero Hunger’ at MS Swaminathan Research Foundation on Thursday.
Dominguez was all praise for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and called him a ‘very impressive man’ who was ‘knowledgeable and forceful.’ He went on to add that it was imperative to adopt digital technology for growth and development.
“We (Philippines) have copied Aadhaar and the legislation will be adopted soon,” said Dominguez. “It is a very good measure as it brings financial inclusivity to the people.”
He said the country will look at financial inclusion by opening bank accounts for citizens and enabling digital payments.
He went on to add that the country was striving to eradicate poverty and hunger, in line with the UNs’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Dominguez said that Philippines was committed to reducing the poverty incidence from 22 per cent to 14 per cent by 2022.
He highlighted that the government was putting its might and finances behind infrastructure projects in a bid to improve connectivity and bolster employment opportunities. He said the motto of the present regime was to ‘Build, build, build.’ However, he mentioned that ‘no matter how great an economic policy looks on paper, if people are hungry, it won’t work.’