The organisers of the annual CARTES & Identification show have confirmed their plans for this year’s event, highlighting a strong focus on the ID document market.
The announcement builds on various industry forecasts that reveal the market for documents such as ID cards, health cards, ePassports, visas, residence permits and driving licences is set for significant growth.
Eurosmart forecasts the delivery of 225 million secure identity documents – up by 18% on 2010 – throughout the world this year. Pira is also forecasting growth. In its 2010 international study, it predicted an annual increase of around 12% over seven years and a market which should reach 7.5 billion euros by 2014.
The industry has also recorded steady growth in the deployment of ePassports complying with ICAO specifications. As the organisers of Cartes report: “At the end of 2010, more than 250 million documents of this type had been delivered in more than 75 countries throughout the world. Canada remains the only developed country to have deferred its plan to issue this type of document, whereas China began its first trials at the beginning of the year.”
The organisers say the outlook for national ID cards is a little more mixed. “The launch of the biggest biometric census project in the world in India in 2010, aiming to provide more than a billion Indians with a unique identification number (UID), came at the same time as the UK abandoned its national ID card project. This was also the year that saw Germany launch its national ID card (80 million contactless cards to be rolled out) and the announcement of a parliamentary bill in France to launch a contact and contactless ID card, corresponding, like the German card, to the European Identification Authentication Signature (IAS) specifications. More recently, Turkey announced that it was in the final stages of developing a national ID card (75 million cards and more than 100,000 biometric readers to be rolled out over five years).”
The organisers also highlight the fortunes of the key players in the industry – Gemalto, Morpho, Oberthur Technologies, Giesecke & Devrient, Smartrac and ASK. These companies have all reported an increase in activity in the personal identity sector over the past two or three years, often in double figures.
The organisers say: “These rapidly growing markets are tending to widen, encompassing an increasing number of applications. The fight against identity theft and fraud, but also the advantage to states of having a national identity register able to serve as a secured database for democratic elections and more recently still the need to secure the internet and to set up new services for citizens, are major factors which are advancing this market and technological innovations. In the US, for example, several states are about to issue secure driving licences thanks to a six-layer, laser-engraving technique which enables a 3D photograph to be incorporated into the body of the card.
“In France, it seems to have been accepted that future driving licences will incorporate an electronic chip similar to the one used on ePassports. In mid-May the US government launched an unprecedented initiative to ‘secure cyberspace’, calling upon international collaboration and making explicit reference to the need to roll out smart cards. A few weeks previously, the NIST had published a document outlining security recommendations in order to protect the vast production and electricity networks (smart grids), again making reference to the key role played by the switch to smart ID cards. This also concerns other areas: the biometric census of populations in a certain number of African countries enables the IMF, in particular, and humanitarian organisations to quantify aid requirements. Biometric checks carried out off-line make it possible to determine whether aid distributed to populations does in fact reach the people in question.
“This surge in activity and the promises it holds for the years to come at the same time encourage a consolidation of the industry. This will be happening shortly, as demonstrated by the acquisition by Morpho (Safran group) of the highly strategic business L-1 Identity solutions in the US, but also that of Cogent by 3M Security, which have contributed without doubt to the rapid rise of this market.”
The CARTES & Identification show takes place in Paris from 15-17 November 2011.
During the conference, there will be sessions on topics such as ‘Trust, privacy and security’; ‘eID schemes, security and added value for citizens’; and ‘eGovernment and secure ID’.