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Gemplus and Setec

Setec, a Gemplus Company, Delivers the First Volumes of Biometric Passports and Electronic Identity Cards to Sweden in a 100 million Euro Contract

Vantaa, Finland, November 3 (ots/PRNewswire)

- Setec and Gemplus's Security Products Meet the World's Most
Demanding  Security Requirements - ICAO and EU
Setec, Northern Europe's leading developer and manufacturer of
visual and electronic card products, and a Gemplus company, announces
today that it has begun the mass delivery of the new biometric
passports and national identity cards with a function for electronic
services (EID cards) for Sweden.
In October 2005, Sweden began to deploy nationwide passports
embedded with a micro-chip, compliant with the international
requirements of the ICAO, International Civil Aviation Organization,
and the European Union. As such, the new Swedish passports, and the
EID cards, meet the world's most demanding security requirements.
Alongside the actual passport, Setec is also providing a
comprehensive information processing system for the personalization
of the biometric passports and EID cards and for the security
calculation services.
This follows the 2004 multi-year agreement between the Swedish
authorities and Setec's Swedish joint-venture AB Svenska Pass to
deliver biometric passports.
This agreement also includes the delivery of the national Swedish
EID cards. These cards contain two microchips; one for traveling
purposes within Schengen countries similar to the biometric passport,
and the other for identification, for example when logging onto
networks to access various electronic services. The value of the
agreement is in excess of EUR100 million.
The new passports and the EID cards will initially store in the
micro-chips the personal data of each holder along side their
digitally formatted facial image. Fingerprints may be included in a
second phase.
"Sweden is a leading player when it comes to biometric
identification, both in Europe and on the international scene. The
Swedish passport and EID cards are based on remarkably safe and
sophisticated smart card products that make them hard to forge. The
cooperation with the Swedish authorities has worked very well, thus
enabling us to develop the products and to start the mass deliveries
in the time agreed," said Pekka Eloholma, President and CEO, Setec.
"The evolution of the Swedish passports has actually been bigger
than just introducing a new biometric passport for our citizens. At
the same time we have created a totally new and a very demanding
information processing system together with Setec. The amount of work
behind this project has been tremendous and the outcome is excellent.
We are proud to be one of the first two countries to start a
nationwide deployment of biometric passports in October," stated Lars
Karlsand, Principal Administrative Officer at the Swedish National
Police Board.
Also, Setec has begun to manufacture Norway's biometric passports
and has been chosen to deliver also their technology to several other
countries including Denmark. Currently, Setec manufactures and
personalizes conventional, i.e. visual passports for Denmark and
Finland.
Setec has been a Gemplus company since June 2005. The combined
references and contract volume deliveries make Gemplus the undisputed
leader in the electronic passport and identity card market.
About Gemplus and Setec
Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and
NASDAQ: GEMP) is the world's leading player in the smart card
industry in both revenue and total shipments (source:
Gartner-Dataquest 2005, Frost & Sullivan, Datamonitor). It has sold
over 5.5 billion smart cards.
Gemplus delivers a wide range of secure, portable, personalized
solutions in areas including Identity, Mobile Telecommunications,
Public Telephony, Banking, Retail, Transport, Healthcare, WLAN,
Pay-TV, e-government, and access control.
Setec, a Gemplus company acquired in 2005, develops, manufactures
and delivers products that require extreme security, such as
biometric and visual passports, electronic and visual ID cards, EMV
cards and SIM cards. Setec's major customers are public authorities,
banks, and telecom operators. The company has operations in Finland,
Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Poland. It employs 400 people.
Gemplus's revenue in 2004 was EUR865 million.
www.gemplus.com
www.setec.com
    For further information, please contact:
    Tuula Wäyrynen                        Jane Strachey
    Corporate Communications Manager      Gemplus Press Relations Manager
    +358-(0)989-41-4532,                  +33(0)442364661
    +358-40-824-3459                      +33(0)676493593
     tuula.wayrynen@setec.com               Jane.strachey@gemplus.com
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Contact:

For further information, please contact: Tuula Wäyrynen, Corporate
Communications Manager, +358-(0)989-41-4532, +358-40-824-3459,
tuula.wayrynen@setec.com. Jane Strachey, Gemplus Press Relations
Manager, +33(0)442364661, +33(0)676493593, Jane.strachey@gemplus.com