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Technology Stocks : Identix (IDNX) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: steve who wrote (25736)	4/1/2004 12:20:16 AM
From: steve	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 26039

China Officially Launches Giant Smart Card ID Project China’s Ministry of Public Security officially began issuing Monday the new chip-based ID card that all of the country’s 900 million adults will carry by 2008. The project manager, Ren Gao, said at the launch ceremony that tests will begin soon in three cities and that by early 2005 the government would roll out the smart card nationwide and stop issuing the current plastic ID card. . The government decided to switch to a contactless chip card to reduce the rampant counterfeiting of the paper IDs, a big problem for officials given the massive migration of Chinese citizens from the countryside to coastal cities over the past two decades. Government officials tell Thomson Media's Card Technology the project will cost $6 billion. That should give a big boost to China's already burgeoning smart card industry. Citing national security, the government says only Chinese companies will provide chips and cards for the project. The government has chosen four domestic semiconductor manufacturers to provide the chips for the cards. They are: CIDC (China Integrated Circuit design Corp., Ltd), Shanghai Huahong, Datang Microelectronics and Qinghua Tongfang Microelectronics. In addition, the government has selected 10 domestic card manufacturing companies to supply the chip cards. Each citizen must pay 20 RMB ($US2.40) for the card, but some low-income people will receive cards for free. As the card is rolled out, the card reader market will also boom in the next few years. For instance, there are some 50,000 police stations that are expected to need about five readers each. Hotels, banks and airports will also install readers to check identities—by Frank Tong in Beijing. (2004-03-31) cardtech.faulknergray.com steve