You are here: silicon.com > Management > Law & Policy

Law & Policy

Italy spends $15m on ID cards

More spent on identifying foreigners than nationals...

Tags: italy, id cards

By Dan Ilett

Published: 10 August 2005 12:30 GMT

Italy is buying $15m worth of optical memory cards as it rolls out a national biometric identity programme to its citizens.

California-based LaserCard claims to have received purchase orders from the Italian government of $7m for biometric citizen cards and $8m for foreigner ID cards.

Each card has a one-megabyte optical memory stripe that will be used to store an owner's facial image, digitised signature and fingerprint.

The Italian government is currently planning to issue every adult in the country with a biometric ID card within six years.

In May this year, the Italian government said that paper-based identity cards will no longer be issued after 1 January 2006. LaserCard said the new ID cards will be delivered to Italy this December. The company has forecast profits of $40m per year from the venture, as cards require updating every five years.

According to the Italian Interior Ministry, the citizen ID is already recognised as a travel card for border entry by 32 countries across Europe and north Africa.

The foreign worker card programme was mandated by the Italian parliament in 2004. Most of these cards will need to be replaced every two years if a worker wishes to continue living in Italy.

The foreigner ID cards are expected to be delivered in April 2006, after which the company said it will make $5m per year.

  1. Zones
  2. Management
  3. Networks
  4. Software
  5. IT Services
  6. Hardware
  1. Verticals
  2. Public Sector
  3. Financial Services
  4. Retail & Leisure

Naked CIO Naked CIO: Social networks are useless for finding a job 'Quantity over quality' approach poisoning professional networks

Peter Cochrane Peter Cochrane's Blog: Uneconomics We must move away from short-termism to prevent next economic crisis


  • Jobs
Embedded C Software Engineer Wanted - South Coast

Embedded C Software Engineer Wanted - Smart Cards Computer Futures are urgently seeking an embedded software engineer for a key account. My client is ...

Kernel Software Engineer - Linux or Windows Kernel, C, x86 Architectures; Cambridge, Excellent + package

Summary: Great opportunity for strong Kernel developers with experience of Linux or Windows Kernel internals, memory management, device driver ...

Product Manager (credit and payment cards)

Product Manager (credit and payment cards) My client requires a Product Manager, with a breadth of skills across analytics, product management, and ...

Agenda Setters 2009
Welcome to the ninth annual Agenda Setters poll – silicon.com's list of the top 50 most influential individuals in the technology and IT industries, from techies and CIOs to entrepreneurs and business leaders. Find out more in our latest special report.





Quick Sitemap Links: