Yesterday, Wednesday 7 April, Egypt’s New Administrative Capital saw President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi inaugurate an integrated complex for secured and smart documents. The complex which is the largest in the Middle East will issue through a unified central system all government papers and certificates, including ownership contracts, court certificates, electronic ID cards and driving licenses, travel passports, land registry powers of attorney, smart cards, government contracts, Thanawiya Amma and university certificates, and customs and finance authorities’ documents.
The complex is remarkable for its technical capabilities in manufacturing and issuing secure identification documents. It also supports Egypt’s strategical mega project for digital transformation.
According to President Sisi, the USD1 billion complex will literally stand in the way of corruption and establish governance in procedures.
The complex is expected to reduce losses in the State’s budget, since it will produce the tax stamps which otherwise used to be imported at a cost of EGP430 million per year. Also, the documents issued by the complex are expected to reduce the risk of forgery and evasion, they will have an embedded tracking and tracing system. Secured civil status documents issued by the complex will also reduce any risk of circulating counterfeit documents.
During the inauguration, President Sisi visited the complex and was given a tour of its facilities and its various production lines.
According to a report issued by the Cabinet, the complex includes a third generation centre for data collection, analysis and processing; it is directly connected with government authorities and ministries. The data centre is fully secured against any cyberattacks. The complex also has a hub of technological lines for the production of secured papers and banknotes; this hub has a huge production capacity and the production lines enjoy unique technology, especially that the complex owns patents in the field. Available also is a hub for two-dimensional, three dimensional and four dimensional hologram technological lines; these would increase the level of security of the documents issued.
The project also includes technological lines for the processing and integrating the plastic layers of smart cards, in addition to integrating security systems and embedding data on the cards according to international credit and debit cards standards. Other technological lines in the complex are responsible for processing electronic passports. The complex also has biometric data collection stations that eliminate any risk of error or repetition.
Watani International
8 April 2021
