Over one crore MRP delivered, says IRIS

Under a contract with the government, IRIS Corporation delivered 10,300,000 Machine Readable Passport (MRP) and 240,000 Machine Readable Visa successfully on time, says a press release.

Prior to the successful rollout of Bangladesh Machine Readable Passport system in 2010, IRIS together with the Government of The People’s Republic of Bangladesh continue to work together towards meeting the deadline set by International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) whereby IRIS was awarded a two-year contract of extension of BDT1.3 billion (RM49 million) with the government of Bangladesh for the Machine Readable Passport (MRP) and Machine Readable Visa (MRV) project.The renewal of the contract was also due to the increasing requirements of MRP volume, additional equipment and related services for the total population of 150 million citizens in Bangladesh.

The Audit Report handover ceremony between IRIS Corporation and the Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh took place in the Department of Immigration & Passport, Agargaon, Dhaka on Monday (27 April, 2015). The programme was chaired by the State Minister for Home affairs Mr. Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, MP and the Special Guest was Dr. Md. Mozammel Haque Khan, Senior Secretary Ministry of Home Affairs.

IRIS built 34 regional passport offices in 31 districts, 59 foreign mission, Data Center in Dhaka, Personalization Center in Dhaka and Disaster Recovery Center in Jessore.

IRIS Corporation, inventor of the world’s first ePassport and world’s first multi-application national eID, today has successfully rollout Bangladesh Machine Readable Passports (MRP) and Machine Readable Visas (MRV) system since 2010, replacing traditional handwritten Bangladeshi passports.

The new MRP has benefited the Government many ways compared to the conventional and manual way of producing the travel documents, hence saving manpower and cost in producing the passports. Newer technologies introduced in the MRP production have also shortened the time in issuing the MRP to its citizens. Meanwhile, the newly implemented ICAO-based MRP is equipped with multiple levels of security features that are less impervious to forgery and tampering which eventually protect the identity of the MRP holder. The use of biometric information such as Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) to link a person to a MRP has even help to detect counterfeit of documents, and to confirmhis or her identity.

“IRIS is a proven player in the trusted identity solutions arena. We are excited and proud to collaborate with the Government of The People’s Republic of Bangladesh to deliver a complete MRP and MRV system. This collaboration is apositive move towards sharing innovative passport solutions with the Bangladesh Department of Immigration and Passports, in line with the nation’s aspirations to progress towards ‘Digital Bangladesh’, said Dato’ Hamdan bin Mohd Hassan, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for IRIS Trusted Identification division. “Our experience in identification and understanding of the unique needs of governments makes IRIS the ideal partner for ePassport, national eID and other trusted identification related solutions.”

IRIS implemented projects like E-Passport, Machine Readable Passport, Driving License, Health Card, National ID Card etc in many countries including Malaysia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Canada, Egypt, Maldives, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey etc.