UAE ministry, Sagem sign $50m contract

The UAE Ministry of Interior and France's Sagem have signed a $50 million plus contract for the project management, design integration and deployment over 22 regional centres of a system that will control the issuance, production and use of several million electronic identity cards for residents here, informed sources confirmed.

Sagem's solution integrates the latest technologies available which includes the smart card with crypto processor, highly secure architecture, internal biometric identity check feature, Java multi application platform and public key infrastructure certificates.

Associated with a population register management system and a government web portal, this fourth generation electronic ID card will allow the managements of all administrative exchanges between the government and its citizens.

Sagem was chosen following an international tender involving some 12 top integrators in the market with the capacity to address the stringent requirements of the UAE.

"This decision confirms Sagem's remarkable position as one of the few companies mastering three fundamental technological skills namely smart cards integration, public key infrastructures and biometrics," an official involved with the project said.

The UAE thus becomes the 12th country to have chosen an integrated management solution with ID documents secured by Sagem, thus confirming the company's world leader position in the new generation ID card market.

Groupe Sagem is an internationally based high technology group, a leader among French groups in the field of telecoms, among European groups in electronics for defence and security and a world leader in finger print based technology.