Poland Selects Gemalto Technology for its Electronic Passport Program

Poland Selects Gemalto Technology for its Electronic Passport Program

August 31, 2006

-- Gemalto to Equip Poland With Over 1.5 Million e-Passport Inlays By the End of 2007

    AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands and WARSAW, Poland, Aug. 31
/Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Gemalto (Euronext NL 0000400653
GTO), a leader in digital security, today announced it will
supply its Setec e-passport solution for the future Polish
electronic passports. The first commercial deliveries
started in July, and under the frame agreement, Gemalto
will provide the Polish Printing State Agency (PWPW) with
the inlays for electronic covers of the future passports to
be provided to Polish citizens.

    In compliance with the European Union recommendations,
Poland started issuing electronic passports for their
citizens by the end of August 2006. A successful pilot
phase including over 3,000 diplomatic e-passports took
place earlier this year, confirming Gemalto as the main
supplier for the global roll out handled by the Polish
Ministry of Interior and Administration. According to the
Ministry of Interior and Administration, all new Polish
passports needed to be electronically-enabled by the end of
August 2006. The Polish Printing State Agency currently
produces around 1.5M passports each year.

    Gemalto's Setec e-passport solution, enhanced by Setec
secure technology, includes the company's highly secure
operating system, with cryptographic features running on a
large capacity contactless chip embedded in the booklet's
back cover sheet. 

    "Gemalto is delighted to contribute to the Polish
e-passport program. Our co-operation with the national
agencies has been extremely constructive and our common
target to develop a secure and well-performing solution for
the benefit of the country's passport holder exceeded
expectations," said Jacques Seneca, President Europe
at Gemalto.

    Many countries worldwide are expected to start
nationwide rollouts of their biometric passports during the
course of this year.  With strong references and global
footprint, Gemalto has the most complete product and
service offer in the emerging identification market.
Current e-passport references of Gemalto include the Czech
Republic, France, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Singapore,
Slovenia, Sweden and the United States of America. To date,
Gemalto has enabled more than 3 million e-passports with its
secured chip-based technology.

    * Setec is part of the Gemalto group (acquired in
2005). The Setec solutions include products that require
extreme security, such as biometric and visual passports,
electronic and visual ID cards, driving licenses and health
cards. 

    About Gemalto

    Gemalto (Euronext NL 0000400653 GTO) is a leader in
digital security with pro forma 2005 annual revenues of
$2.2 billion, operations in 120 countries and 11,000
employees including 1,500 R&D engineers. The company's
solutions make personal digital interactions secure and
easy in a world where everything of value -- from money to
entertainment to identities -- is increasingly represented
as bits and bytes communicated over networks.

    Gemalto thrives on creating and deploying secure
platforms, portable and secure forms of software in highly
personal objects like smart cards, SIMs, e-passports,
readers and tokens. More than a billion people worldwide
use the company's products and services for
telecommunications, banking, e-government, identity
management, multimedia content, digital rights management,
IT security and other applications. Gemalto was formed in
June 2006 by the combination of Axalto and Gemplus
International S.A.   

    For more information please visit
http://www.gemalto.com 

    For more information, please contact:

    Gemalto

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     Emmanuelle Saby
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     Investor Relations
     Stephane Bisseuil
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    TBWA\Corporate

     Emlyn Korengold
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SOURCE  Gemalto