Six firms show interest to supply smart national ID

KATHMANDU, Aug 7:

Six international firms have showed interest to supply smart national identification cards.

Dinesh Bhattarai, executive director of National ID Management Center (NIMC) under Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), said six firms have submitted their bids by Wednesday -- the deadline for submission of bids.
According to the center, Gemalto, Safran and Arjowiggins Security from France, Dermalog from Germany, IRIS from Malaysia and Informatics from Sri Lanka have submitted their bids.

NIMC had sought bid from interested firms to supply smart ID cards a month ago.

According to Bhattarai, the evaluation of proposals submitted by the six firms will begin soon. He, however, did not say how much time will be needed to select the vendor.

"The bidding document of every firm weighs more than 100 kg. It would take some time to evaluate their proposals," added.

The center plans to distribute 117,000 cards within one and half years of the selection of the vendor.

According to Bhattarai, the selected firm should set up its manufacturing unit in Nepal itself. However, the data will be entered into the system by Nepali technicians. The card will contain biological and personal information of the cardholders. The smart card can be utilized as the national identity card, voter ID card and social security card, among others.

Though the government has announced plan to issue smart identity card, it has not made it clear yet whether such cards will replace citizenship certificate or not.

Source: Republica