Saudi Arabia Expands National ID Card Program
LaserCard Corp., a provider of secure ID solutions, recently announced a follow-on purchase order valued at $2.8 million to supply secure identity cards for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s National ID Card program. This brings the total value of orders received for the program since April 1 to $7.4 million.
The $2.8 million order is for the continued supply of optical smart cards to be issued via offices in cities throughout Saudi Arabia. Deliveries under the order are expected to be completed during the current calendar year.
“We are pleased to continue our close relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in support of this vital homeland security project,” said Bob DeVincenzi, president and CEO of LaserCard Corp. “This ongoing program is a real vote of confidence in both LaserCard technology and the performance of the personalization solution we developed and installed in Riyadh and many regional cities under contract to the Saudi government. The system’s success demonstrates our abilities as a leading provider of secure ID solutions.”
The Saudi Arabia National ID card is a wallet-sized card that features LaserCard’s optical memory security and a contact chip on one side, and the cardholder’s picture and demographic information on the other.
The optical memory adds an unsurpassed level of digital and visual security to the card. As well as securely storing the cardholder’s digital information, such as demographics and facial image, the optical stripe is permanently marked with visible cardholder identity information for ease and confidence of visual verification. This blending of digital and visual security is unique among all card-based data storage technologies.
The card is used for secure personal identification and to manage the provision of citizen services through the country’s electronic government initiatives.