Anthony Locicero, Associate editor03.02.21
Bangladesh has achieved several key milestones in its nationwide transition to next-generation electronic passports in 2020, Veridos reported.
Despite the adverse circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, the People's Republic was able to decisively advance the modernization project together with its German technology partner Veridos, the latter announced.
The company said it also supported the country to make all necessary preparations to further deepen the local supply chain for ePassports in 2021.
In 2020, Veridos said it equipped all 70 regional passport offices in Bangladesh with the necessary IT resources for providing modern ePassports.
Workstations with biometric enrollment equipment enable staff at all passport offices to collect the necessary data from citizens, including fingerprints, iris scans and color photos, according to Veridos.
Since January 2020, citizens can schedule online appointments for enrollment, which allows them to avoid long wait times, Veridos noted.
Already more than half a million citizens have applied for ePassports via the online portal, the company said.
The production and personalization center for the new ePassports in the capital, Dhaka, was fully completed in 2020, according to Veridos.
It contains a state-of-the-art data center and is equipped with modern personalization machines, Veridos said, and its capacity amounts to 25,000 e-passports per day.
Veridos said it also provided 15 eGates to airports in Bangladesh, which are the country's first-ever eGates. In 2021, the company said it will install 35 additional eGates.
In 750 training sessions at its training center in Bangladesh, as well as through numerous on-the-job training programs and video tutorials, Veridos said it prepared local employees to operate the systems for the new ePassports.
Plans for the current year include the equipping of authorities in Bangladesh with mobile enrollment kits, according to Veridos.
These special kits including notebooks and devices for capturing biometric information will enable authorities to capture the data of citizens in rural areas, the company said.
Veridos said it will also put a production line for book-binding of the ePassports into operation.
“Having the support of our partner Veridos has helped us to achieve our ambitious timelines," said Brigadier General Saidur Rahman Khan, Project director at the Department of Immigration and Passport. “We are delighted to be offering our citizens not only one of the most modern and secure ePassports in the world but also to make the application process as fast and user-friendly as possible. On average, 7,500 citizens enroll in their biometric information every day, and this is just the start.”
"The country's new ePassports make international mobility easier for citizens. This will especially benefit the millions of Bangladeshis who work abroad, as they will be able to travel more smoothly and obtain the necessary visas faster," added Andreas Räschmeier, CEO of Veridos. "Furthermore, we continue to create local qualified jobs and to foster knowledge sharing – by the end of the project we will have easily delivered more than 1,000 training sessions."
