President Sadyr Japarov, in an interview with KINA "Kabar," clarified the situation regarding the replacement of driver's licenses and discussed the problems with the digital platform "Tündük."
— Sadyr Nurgozhoevich, recently there have been many rumors about the mandatory replacement of driver's licenses. People say that old licenses can be kept, and their validity can be extended. What is the reason for such questions?
— That's right, the issue of driver's licenses has not been raised for almost three decades. Our old passports, ID cards, and licenses were produced outside the country.
Moreover, their security features were ineffective and of low quality. Since last year, we have started producing all state documents at our enterprise "Uchkun."
Now we also manufacture technical passports, driver's licenses, and state license plates for vehicles. The quality of these documents is of the highest level.
Previously, there were cases where migrants and representatives of other nationalities forged and sold our old licenses and ID passports. And now, in Russia, counterfeit licenses and ID passports continue to be used.
There have been registered cases of terrorists being detained with fake Kyrgyz passports.
This has negatively affected the reputation and international image of Kyrgyzstan.
Now such problems should be eliminated. The concept of "fake passport" should disappear.
For this reason, we have started the replacement process. If we replace all old driver's licenses for free and completely withdraw them from circulation, it will make it impossible to use fakes both within the country and abroad.
There are facts that some of our citizens acquire fake licenses in Russia and then drive cars with these documents in Kyrgyzstan.
For this purpose, an inventory of all driver's licenses and other official documents is being conducted at the state level.
The main goal of these activities is to identify all illegal documents, streamline the process, ensure the safety of citizens, and maintain the international authority of our state.
Therefore, it was decided to replace all old driver's licenses with new samples.
I want to emphasize that the protection of new documents is at the highest level, and they cannot be forged. Therefore, citizens are strongly advised to exchange their old licenses for new ones.
— Many questions also arise regarding the validity of driver's licenses. Some are indefinite, but the "Tündük" platform indicates that the validity expires in 2027 or 2028. What should be done in this situation?
— Let me explain in more detail. Due to the reasons mentioned above, both old ID cards and driver's licenses are being replaced.
Therefore, if citizens plan to travel abroad or expect to drive only within Kyrgyzstan, they need to exchange their licenses for new ones.
Some documents are so worn that the name is unreadable, and the photo is unrecognizable. Therefore, even indefinite licenses require replacement.
The service for document replacement is available without breaks or days off from 8:30 AM to 11:00 PM.
Previously, replacing indefinite licenses required a medical certificate No. 083. To simplify the process, holders of indefinite licenses no longer need a medical certificate.
A medical certificate is only needed for those obtaining a driver's license for the first time.
— For the convenience of citizens, the option to replace licenses through the "Tunduk" portal was also introduced. However, recently there have been disruptions in the platform's operation. Why did this happen at such an important moment?
— Let me clarify the situation with the "Tunduk" platform. Previous governments only declaratively stated about digitalization, but in practice, this issue was not given due attention. Funding was insufficient, and the servers were weak.
Due to a lack of capital investment in the development of the server infrastructure, 122.5 million soms were allocated from the Presidential Fund for the modernization of the platform.
Currently, JSC "Tunduk" is selecting suppliers for the appropriate equipment. Additionally, for the first stage of modernization, 9.5 million soms have been allocated from the republican budget.
As a result, the capabilities of the system will significantly increase.
The recent disruptions in the "Tunduk" portal were caused by a sharp increase in the number of citizens simultaneously accessing the system, which created a load that the server could not handle.
Work to resolve this issue will continue.
Therefore, all citizens are strongly advised to replace their old ID cards and driver's licenses with new ones.
In the future, the international community should have no doubts about who is a citizen of Kyrgyzstan.
There should be no dark spots in our country.
