Poland Selects Gemalto Technology for its Electronic Passport Program
Amsterdam and Warsaw (ots/PRNewswire)
- Gemalto to Equip Poland With Over 1.5 Million e-Passport Inlays by the end of 2007
Gemalto (Euronext NL 0000400653 GTO), a leader in digital security, today announced it will supply its Setec(x) e-passport solution for the future Polish electronic passports. The first commercial deliveries started in July, and under the frame agreement, Gemalto will provide the Polish Printing State Agency (PWPW) with the inlays for electronic covers of the future passports to be provided to Polish citizens.
In compliance with the European Union recommendations, Poland started issuing electronic passports for their citizens by the end of August 2006. A successful pilot phase including over 3 000 diplomatic e-passports took place earlier this year, confirming Gemalto as the main supplier for the global roll out handled by the Polish Ministry of Interior and Administration. According to the Ministry of Interior and Administration, all new Polish passports needed to be electronically-enabled by the end of August 2006. The Polish Printing State Agency currently produces around 1.5M passports each year.
Gemalto's Setec e-passport solution, enhanced by Setec secure technology, includes the company's highly secure operating system, with cryptographic features running on a large capacity contactless chip embedded in the booklet's back cover sheet.
"Gemalto is delighted to contribute to the Polish e-passport program. Our co-operation with the national agencies has been extremely constructive and our common target to develop a secure and well-performing solution for the benefit of the country's passport holder exceeded expectations", said Jacques Seneca, President Europe at Gemalto.
Many countries worldwide are expected to start nationwide rollouts of their biometric passports during the course of this year. With strong references and global footprint, Gemalto has the most complete product and service offer in the emerging identification market. Current e-passport references of Gemalto include the Czech Republic, France, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, Sweden and the United States of America. To date, Gemalto has enabled more than 3 million e-passports with its secured chip-based technology.
(x) Setec is part of the Gemalto group (acquired in 2005). The Setec solutions include products that require extreme security, such as biometric and visual passports, electronic and visual ID cards, driving licenses and health cards.
About Gemalto
Gemalto (Euronext NL 0000400653 GTO) is a leader in digital security with pro forma 2005 annual revenues of US$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
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M: +33-6-09-10-76-10
Emmanuelle.saby@gemalto.com
Investor Relations
Stéphane Bisseuil
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M: +33-6-86-08-64-13
Stéphane.bisseuil@gemalto.com
TBWACorporate
Emlyn Korengold
T: +33-1-49-09-66-51
M: +33-6-08-21-93-74
emlyn.korengold@tbwa-corporate.comContact:
Gemalto, Media, Emmanuelle Saby, T: +33-1-55-01-57-27, M:
+33-6-09-10-76-10, Emmanuelle.saby@gemalto.com; Investor Relations,
Stéphane 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