Immigration Chief Visits Malaysia, Ethiopia to Acquire Passport Production Technology

By Simon Deng

The Director General of the Directorate of Civil Registry, Nationality, Passport, and Immigration, Maj. Gen. Elia Costa Faustino George, has engaged with both Malaysia and Ethiopia to acquire technology for high-quality passport production.

“During our visit, we toured the facilities of the institution responsible for printing passports and IDs, and we gained valuable insights into their printing processes,” Faustino said upon his arrival at Juba International Airport on Saturday.

“We met with the immigration authorities there, and they assured us of their willingness to contribute and cooperate with us in the Republic of South Sudan, particularly in the training of our personnel and in border management control,” he said.

Faustino revealed that after the visit to Malaysia, his delegation also attended the annual meeting of the ID for Africa held in neighboring Ethiopia. “We spent four days in Addis Ababa, and during our meetings there, we gained more knowledge about digital identification. The world is advancing, and it is our responsibility to keep pace with this technology,” he said. “While we were there, we held a side meeting with our counterparts from Ethiopia, Nigeria, the World Bank, and others. They promised to support us in capacity building,” he added.

The delegation from South Sudan consists of members from the Directorate of Civil Registry, Nationality, Passport and Immigration (DNPI), the National Legislative Assembly, the Ministry of Finance, the National Communication Authority, and the South Sudan Revenue Authority, among others.