Gemalto Selected for Electronic Passport Roll Out in Slovenia
Amsterdam and Ljubljana, Slovenia (ots/PRNewswire)
- 10-Year Contract for Intelligent Devices to be Embedded in the Citizens' e-passports
Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), a world leader in digital security, today announces it will provide the technology to be used in electronic passports for Slovenian citizens. Under the contract, Gemalto will supply the secure polycarbonate devices embedding its advanced secure electronic passport software technology to Cetis, Slovenia's leader in security document printing. One million passports are currently in use in Slovenia and the government intends to roll out the first electronic passports as from end of August this year.
The contract involves 600,000 devices to be supplied by 2016. Gemalto has already delivered a first batch of 50,000 products to Cetis, who will deploy the corresponding number of e-passports by year's end.
In Slovenia, which has approximately 2 million inhabitants, citizens of all ages travelling abroad must carry a personal ID or passport. By migrating to chip-enabled travel documents, Slovenia is complying with the European Union's mandate requiring its member states to adopt the technology by August 2006.
The technology provided by Gemalto includes a highly secure operating system with advanced cryptographic features running on a large capacity contactless chip. Gemalto's solution is designed to support governments and its secure printing agencies and partners in their migration to chip-enabled passports. This complete program also includes assistance to booklet machine manufacturers and national printing offices in mass producing and personalizing electronic passports using the industry leader's experience in security.
"With Gemalto's technology, Cetis will be able to achieve distribution of electronic passports that offer the highest levels of security," commented Jacques Seneca, President Europe at Gemalto. "This new success reinforces Gemalto's position as a major player in the field of e-ID programs, and further strengthens Gemalto's presence in Central Europe."
About Gemalto
Gemalto (Euronext NL 0000400653 GTO) is a leader in digital security with pro forma 2005 annual revenues of EUR1,7 billion ($2.2 billion), operations in 120 countries and 11,000 employees including 1,500 R&D engineers. The company's solutions make personal digital interactions secure and easy in a world where everything of value -from money to entertainment to identities- is increasingly represented as bits and bytes communicated over networks.
Gemalto thrives on creating and deploying secure platforms, portable and secure forms of software in highly personal objects like smart cards, SIMs, e-passports, readers and tokens. More than a billion people worldwide use the company's products and services for telecommunications, banking, e-government, identity management, multimedia content, digital rights management, IT security and other applications. Gemalto was formed in June 2006 by the combination of Axalto and Gemplus International S.A. For more information please visit www.gemalto.com.
Gemalto Media Emmanuelle Saby T: +33-1-55-01-57-27 M: +33-6-09-10-76-10 emmanuelle.saby@gemalto.com Investor Relations Stephane Bisseuil T: +33-1-55-01-50-97 M: +33-6-86-08-64-13 stephane.bisseuil@gemalto.com TBWACorporate Emlyn Korengold T: +33-1-49-09-66-51 M: +33-6-08-21-93-74 emlyn.korengold@tbwa-corporate.com
Contact:
Gemalto: Media, Emmanuelle Saby, T: +33-1-55-01-57-27, M:
+33-6-09-10-76-10, emmanuelle.saby@gemalto.com. Investor Relations,
Stephane Bisseuil, T: +33-1-55-01-50-97, M: +33-6-86-08-64-13,
stephane.bisseuil@gemalto.com. TBWACorporate, Emlyn Korengold, T:
+33-1-49-09-66-51, M: +33-6-08-21-93-74,
emlyn.korengold@tbwa-corporate.com