Parliament: Citizens can opt for paperless birth registration at 3 hospitals from June with launch of new app

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Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said this initiative demonstrates the Government's efforts to deliver better citizen services. PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM LIVESTREAM

SINGAPORE - Parents registering the birth of their child will soon be able to do so without filling up a paper form.

From June this year, birth registration can be done on a new Moments of Life (MOL) app, described as the first showcase of "anticipatory" services by Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Initiative in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

When a birth is registered on the app, it can also initiate an application for the Baby Bonus scheme under the Ministry of Social and Family Development.

During the debate on the PMO's budget on Thursday (March 1), Dr Balakrishnan said this initiative demonstrates the Government's efforts to deliver better citizen services. He was replying to Ms Jessica Tan (East Coast GRC), who asked how the Government is making citizen services more anticipatory.

"This is not really a question of technology but one of re-engineering our processes," he said. Specifically, citizens should not have to figure out which door to take to access government services, he said, citing its No Wrong Door Policy.

He added: "If we succeed, the doors should disappear."

The new Moments of Life app will first be rolled out at three hospitals - KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Singapore General Hospital and National University Hospital - as an alternative way of registering births. More hospitals will be included in subsequent versions of the app, which aims to have more than 10,000 Singapore citizens as users for starters.

Birth registration has so far been paper-based, and done at hospitals or the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority building.

First announced in April 2016, the app is developed with the aim of letting citizens skip the hassle of going to different agencies to fill in forms. It will be the first showcase of integration, as it involves multiple government agencies.

The app will also allow new parents to search for and put their child on wait-list in pre-schools within a 1km radius of a certain location, which can be selected using geolocation technologies, and view their child's medical appointments and immunisation records.

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