In a country where checking a single document often means a line at the counter and half a day lost, every digitalization announcement sounds appealing. The Ministry of Digital Transformation has presented a new system for SMART licenses, with the promise that a license's validity can be verified in ten seconds.

According to minister Stefan Andonovski, the system includes an electronic application, an electronic registry, a QR-check, transparency, and a verifiable trail. It's meant for licensing entities that perform public functions, and in the first phase it covers pilot licenses for qualified providers of trust services. In short - instead of paper and stamps, a system anyone can check online.

The same presentation also touched on the „Roaming Like at Home" initiative, designed to make communication easier for citizens. Both announcements point in the same direction: less bureaucracy, more digital services.

The idea is good, and it's hard for anyone to be against it. But Macedonia has rich experience with digital systems announced with fanfare and then left half-empty, slow, or unused. „Ten seconds" is the promised time; the real test will be whether the system actually works for the ordinary citizen, or just looks good in a presentation. Digitalization isn't measured by the press release, but by how many lines at the counter have really disappeared.