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ID card bonanza for foreign firms |
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Biometrics
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Written by Peter Warren
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Friday, 31 December 2004 |
Bought and published in London Evening Standard, Daily Mail, December 31, 2004
FOREIGN companies are lined up for a multi-billion pound bonanza
introducing the Government's controversial identity card scheme, with
no large British company likely to be involved in leading the project.
Despite frantic lobbying to win some of the business - worth up to £3bn
- involved in developing, making and administering the card scheme,
foreign multinationals are in pole position to pick up the bulk of the
orders, leaving British firms fighting for scraps as junior partners in
foreign-led consortia likely to tender for the work.
Despite frantic lobbying to win some of the business - worth up to £3bn
- involved in developing, making and administering the card scheme,
foreign multinationals are in pole position to pick up the bulk of the
orders, leaving British firms fighting for scraps as junior partners in
foreign-led consortia likely to tender for the work.
The House of Commons voted in favour of the Home Office scheme
last week, kicking off a massive and potentially lucrative race for
contracts.
Nick Caliperas, director of Britain's software trade body which has
been working closely with the Government on the ID card scheme in an
attempt to win work for British companies, says: 'We think it is much
more likely to be a consortium.
'If it is a consortium, then it is much more likely that some of the
UK's small and medium-sized enterprises could benefit because there are
a lot of niche areas in this ID cards scheme and the Home Office has
been very keen not to prejudice the market.
'Of course, I would love to see a thriving UK-owned IT industry but all
of the companies in the running do make a valuable contribution to the
UK economy.'
Big foreign companies already closely linked to the scheme are licking
their lips at the prospect of a bumper revenue boost. Holland's Philips
is one of the largest manufacturers of smart cards of the type likely
to be required.
French-based Atos Origin and Axalto, which is a subsidiary of American
energy services group Schlumberger, have been in charge of the Home
Office's ID card pilot scheme. Other overseas headquartered smart card
manufacturers that will hope for a slice of the action include Overture
and GemPlus.
Other likely winners could include the makers of the silicon chips that
go into the cards, such as France's Thomson CSF, Germany's Siemens, and
Japan's Hitachi.
Also in a strong position to pick up business from Britain are Japanese
technology giant NEC, which produces an automated fingerprint
identification system; Minnesota-based Identix, which provides
fingerprint capture and facial matching technology; and Iridian
Technologies of New Jersey, which supplies the iris recognition
capability.
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