- Delivery and maintenance of 144 stations designed for “live” enrolment of visa and passport applicants
- Solution complying with ICAO international standards on travel documentation
Brussels (Belgium), 24th September 2009 – Zetes, the international specialist in automatic goods and people identification solutions, has been appointed by the Belgian Federal Public Service (FPS) Foreign Affairs to supply the equipment, biometric software, and technical support for the registration of the biometric data of applicants for visas and passports. These are to be installed at embassies, consulates, and border crossing points.
The Zetes solution is a system of “live” enrolment, which allows to register a photo, the finger prints and the digital signature (for passports) of applicants all at the same time. In order to meet the ICAO international standards on photos for travel documents, Zetes has developed booths specially designed for this purpose, as well as software that automatically detects non-complying photos.
The contract with the FPS Foreign Affairs covers the delivery of 144 stations, to be installed at the end of 2009 and in the course of 2010 in 120 consulates and 13 border posts. The first posts to be installed will be in the Middle East.
Alain Wirtz, the Zetes CEO, comments: “We are very pleased to have been selected by the FPS Foreign Affairs based on very stringent criteria. Identification requirements at European and international levels are becoming increasingly stringent. The European Union is requiring the incorporation of biometric data in passports and visas, and the ICAO is laying down the standards to be met, in particular with regard to the visual characteristics of the photos. We have used the know-how we implemented for other projects, in particular Biodev II and the Ivory Coast, to develop a solution which is both stable and flexible, and will meet the requirements of countries having to comply with these new standards. This will help Belgium to offer more secure documents so that it can fight fraud and identity theft with increased efficiency.”
This project will contribute to the objectives announced for 2009.
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