The head of Isfahan Municipality’s Communications and Information Technology Department (abbreviated as FAVA in Persian) and the representative of Electronic Commerce Organization affiliated to the Ministry of Commerce signed a contract for establishing the first electronic certification office of the country’s municipalities in Isfahan.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony of this office, which was participated by the officials of Isfahan city as well as the deputy commerce minister for communications and information technology affairs, the head of Communications and Information Technology Department of Isfahan stated that digital signature increases  security in the cyber space and makes the legal follow-up of the electronic documents possible.

Homayoun Yazdan-Panah went on to say that digital signature boosts security in the cyber space and mentioned that it is a necessity of electronic commerce and strengthens security of the computer systems and provides Secure administrative automation.

Referring to the significance of signature in the daily life and administrative affairs of the people, he said that establishing digital signature issuing office in Isfahan was put forward two years ago and fortunately by taking follow-up measures we could establish it in this city for the first time in the country.

The head of Communications and Information Technology Department of Isfahan further emphasized that hand signatures are inefficient in today’s world adding digital signature is the secure proper solution for the cyber space with the features of hand signature in this space .

Digital signature makes legal follow-up of electronic documents possible

Elsewhere in his remarks, Yazdan-Panah referred to increasing security in the cyber space and making the legal follow-up of the electronic documents possible as some features of digital signature and said that digital signature is some kind of cryptogram with the features of hand signature in the electronic space.

He went on to say that in Article No. 50 of the Fifth National Development Plan, the Ministry of Commerce has been authorized with issuing electronic certificate and developing digital signature in such a way that the Electronic Commerce Development Center of this ministry issues permit for establishing electronic certification office through investigating conditions and technical capabilities of the applicants and this permit has been already received for the first time in country by the Communications and Information Technology Department of the municipality of Isfahan among the other municipalities.

According to the head of Communications and Information Technology Department of Isfahan this office is an intermediate center in the communications and information technology sector to issue digital certificate for the applicant such as directors, personnel and citizens.

Yazdan-Panah further referred to confirming identity, accuracy of the electronic documents, and unassailable status of these documents by the signing person as the main advantages of digital signature.

Digital signature is main requirement of e-commerce

Addressing the same ceremony, the deputy commerce minister for information technology and e-commerce development affairs referred to digital signature as the main requirement of e-commerce and said that egovernment could not be materialized without digital signature and identity confirming in the online spaces.

Referring to the necessity of moving toward the e-government, Mohammad-Sadeq Mofatteh mentioned that moving toward e-government is a necessity that if we do not taken into account, we will become a far island without having any logical relation with the other countries.

He also pointed to the need for precise statistics and information, passing time for making coordination and relations with different departments due to the traditional administrative methods, creation of golden signatures and increase in administrative bureaucracy and financial corruption as the results as some points that make materializing the e-government necessary.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the deputy commerce minister for information technology and e-commerce  development affairs said that the quantity and quality growth of the cities, complicated social relations and different aspects of offering services to the people make moving toward materializing the e-government necessary adding the e-government could be materialized just in case of confirming identity in the cyber space.

The official further pointed to deleting some large part of the intercity travels, decreasing investment-making for creating counters in the departments and face-to-face contacts of the people as some advantages of digital signature and up-to-the-minute information about the ID certification of the person and not possibility of making even the smallest change in the content of document as the main one.

Mofatteh referred to the digital signature as the electronic identity of people and said that the e-commerce is not materialized rather than through materializing the e-government and it is while the e-government is not materialized rather than through materializing the e-identity in the cyber space.

The deputy commerce minister for communications and information technology affairs further appreciated the performance of Isfahan municipality in terms of establishing the first electronic certification office as the first municipality in the country and noted that this act is not just materializing an infrastructure but it is changing the space.

The official further pointed to not developing the distribution system and not using the modern applications as the reason for high cost of transactions in the country and reiterated that the high cost of transactions for itself is one of the main reasons of high end price of the commodities and services in Iran, so many countries are applying the e-commerce which its main requirement is digital signature.

He believes that using the cyber space in the municipality, which deals with many people, expedites the affairs, saying: “Given that the required infrastructures and preliminaries of using this space has been provided in our country, we hope that we could take a large step to pass the distance we have lagged behind the other countries in this due.”

The chairman of Information dissemination Commission of Isfahan Islamic City Council for his part stated that the human’s science is doubled every six months in terms of the electronics and telecommunications and its results could be observed in the products offered in this field.

Putting emphasis on the necessity of changing the trend of using IT in the country, Qorbani said that we have not ever selected any thing in terms of communications and information technology and everything has been imposed us in this due, so this trend should be changed.

The member of Isfahan Islamic City Council went on to say that unfortunately the infrastructures are not provided in our country and there are weaknesses in the main laws, so we should change this emulating trend in the country through recognizing related problems.