Bosnian Ministry of the Interior Selects Siemens Business Services For ID Cards

Siemens Business Services has been commissioned by the Bosnian Ministry of the Interior to implement the IT infrastructure for the personalization and issuing of the four million or so plastic cards - 2.5 million ID cards for all citizens over 16, and 1.5 million drivers licenses.The project is worth in the region of 20 million euros. Distribution of the cards is already under way. The integration of a fingerprint in the ID cards guarantees a high level of security - ID card and drivers license are, for example, fully compliant with EU security requirements. The Siemens Operating Group, as general contractor, is responsible for setting up, operating and maintaining the system as well as for training the users. The company also runs a helpdesk to help the staff with questions or problems. Throughout the country, 146 permanent and 20 temporary offices have been set up, in which citizens photos and signatures are digitally recorded and embedded in the ID card or drivers license. The ID cards also contain the owners fingerprint as a biometric identification characteristic, and the corresponding information is stored on the card in the form of a barcode. In addition, the data flows into an electronic residents register - a database based on Oracle 9i which the Siemens Operating Group has set up in Sarajevo and redundantly in Banja Luka. It is one of the first internet applications in the world with Oracle 9i for a civil register. The first residents already have their new drivers licenses and ID cards, and the four million or so old paper documents are scheduled for replacement by plastic cards by the end of 2004.