Hon Chairperson, Deputy Minister and hon members, in 30 days' time, we will mark 60 years since the Congress of the People adopted the Freedom Charter in Kliptown. Accordingly, during this anniversary of the drafting and adoption of that historic document by the peoples of South Africa, the Department of Home Affairs remains firmly committed to realising the historic aspirations of the peoples of our country. We believe that our work is a critical enabler for all the declarations in the Freedom Charter. It is our department that ensures that the status of each and every South African is recognised, enabling them fully to exercise their rights and responsibilities as citizens.
Since 2005, we have studiously explained why it is crucial to register the birth of every child within 30 days. We have also announced that we are taking steps to end late registration of birth as a widespread practice, as of 31 December 2015. From 1 January 2016, the registration of all births after 30 days will have to undergo a rigorous process to prove that the child really is a South African citizen. However, the process will be designed to ensure that no genuine South African risks losing their citizenship.
I have outlined five priorities for the Department of Home Affairs during this financial year. The first priority is to make progress on the current phase of the Modernisation programme, which is critical to improve services to citizens. A digital, paperless back-office environment will enable the department to serve customers more efficiently. An example of this is the new, live capture system used for both the ID smart card and passport systems. It is a quick and convenient process, with the documents produced in less than a week, in most cases.
Accordingly, our key objectives for the Modernisation programme during this financial year include: issuing more than 2,2 million ID cards to citizens on the national identity system; procuring hardware for the development of a new, automated fingerprint identification system; and beginning to upgrade the electronic movement control system at our ports of entry to capture biometric data of all foreign nationals entering the Republic, beginning in January 2016.
On the e-channels, we have entered into an exciting partnership with four major banks. This will enable us to accept applications for ID smart cards and passports at banks by the second quarter of this financial year. In this regard, it is essential to establish a reliable and uninterruptible service network that will enable us to serve citizens, irrespective of electrical and other faults. Recently, our clients have, on occasion, been frustrated by system disruptions and long queues at offices offering ID smart cards. We have implemented several solutions to resolve these issues, including a new disaster-recovery site and installing generators for an uninterruptible power supply at all our 140 ID smart card-issuing offices. We have also developed an offline mode in order to continue serving clients even when systems are down.
Long queues have been occasioned by the fact that, currently, only 140 out of 407 offices have live-capture capability. This creates congestion in these offices as the demand for ID smart cards increases. We will roll out live capture to 38 more offices during this financial year and are exploring the recapitalisation of the current mobile office fleet to have live-capture capability. Our e-channels strategy will also be helpful in this regard in providing alternative channels for us to serve clients, thus expanding our footprint and minimising queues.
Let us imagine a client called Takalani. In September this year, she will log on to the Department of Home Affairs site on an Internet application to apply for a passport or an ID. She will pay her fees by electronic funds transfer and then she will book an appointment online. When Takalani arrives for the appointment at her bank, she will go to the counter allocated to the Department of Home Affairs officials, who will verify her identity online and capture her biometrics, digitally. A few days later, she will receive a message to collect her document.
Going forward, the same system will be rolled out to specific, digitised offices. Recently, at our Edenvale office, we began piloting a payment system that will allow clients to pay for Home Affairs services with debit and credit cards. We will roll out this system to all 140 ID smart card offices, by March 2016.
Our second major priority this year is the establishment of an effective border management agency by the 2016-17 financial year. In this regard, Cabinet has approved a model for a specialised agency, which will significantly improve the management of our ports of entry and borderline. Enabling legislation is being drafted and will be introduced by the third quarter of this financial year. The department has assumed leadership for the Border Control Operational Co-ordinating Committee, and 93 officials have been seconded to the Border Management Agency, BMA, project management office. In the coming weeks, we will be launching a programme aimed at strengthening the control of the border environment, prior to the establishment of the BMA.
A related and third priority is the revamp of the physical and systems infrastructure of the six key land ports of entry. We will work closely with National Treasury to develop viable funding and management models to address the serious infrastructure deficiencies at our key ports of entry. To this end, we will be appointing a transaction advisor to undertake the technical studies required to support the proposals.
Our fourth priority is the comprehensive review of our International Migration policy. Last year, we began a total review of the outdated 1999 White Paper on International Migration. This process is now at an advanced stage. The Green Paper will be finalised by March 2016, leading to a White Paper and a comprehensive overhaul of legislation.
We are continuing to implement the immigration regulations of 2014. On 1 June this year, we will start implementing the requirement for unabridged birth certificates for travelling children. We wish to reassure South Africans that no child who has to travel will be prevented from doing so due to inability to issue unabridged birth certificates.
In this regard, we have taken pre-emptive measures which included premodification of unabridged birth certificates for the children who already have passports but have not yet applied for unabridged certificates. This will ensure that these children are issued papers within the shortest possible time, rather than in the standard time. We are also certain that both current applications and those constituting the backlog will be available by the end of this month. We have issued an instruction that every parent applying for a minor's passport should simultaneously apply for an unabridged birth certificate. We have also created a hotline for queries related to this issue.
The introduction of visa facilitation centres has improved customer service, realised significant efficiencies and has improved security. In order to improve access to our visa system, nine additional centres have been opened in India. Two more will be opened in China.
The 10-year multiple-entry visa for Brics business people will be rolled out to other countries after consultation with relevant departments. In partnership with the Gauteng Development Agency, we have launched, in Sandton, an immigration business hub for our big corporate clients to provide one-stop advice and services. We intend rolling out similar hubs in other provinces.
The panel of immigration management experts I had established to advise us on innovative ways to improve our visa system has finished its work and we are studying their report. We must remember that many other countries are competing for the same, skilled international migrants. We are at the advanced stages of developing an initiative to make it easier for foreign students with critical skills to remain in the country after completion of their studies. Similarly, we are looking at ways to make it easier for holders of corporate visas to acquire critical skills visas. The Deputy Minister will update you on steps taken to manage our asylum seekers and refugees.
Our final and fifth priority is to ensure a consistently high quality of customer experience in our front offices. Again, the Deputy Minister, who is charged with oversight of this project, will provide details in this regard during her speech.
The Government Printing Works, GPW, is undertaking the following initiatives to achieve the objective of becoming Africa's leading producer of security documents, by 2017. The State Printers' Bill is to be introduced during this financial year to enable the GPW to transition from being a government component to a state-owned company, within two years. The R600 million Asset Recapitalisation programme will continue during this financial year, for completion by 2019. Amongst other benefits, it will enable the GPW to increase its production of ID smart cards.
A R1 billion development to bring all GPW functions into one, state-of-the- art, highly-secure facility is on track. The construction of a high-speed examination facility and dispatch centre for passports and ID smart cards will begin during this financial year. In the 2015-16 financial year, we will be transferring R1,5 billion to the Independent Electoral Commission,