1.2 Passport info ( Malaysia)

1.2.i Current book a MRP or E-MRP

E-MRP

1.2.ii Date for E-MRP

Since March 1998 .

IRIS Corporation Berhad is the pioneer of the world first EPP

1.2.iii Passport validity period

5 years

1.2.iv Volume issued per year

6 million to date

1.2.v Material used for data page

Passport book is printed by National Security Printer and passport inlay made of PVC and PET material by IRIS Corp Bhd

1.2.vi Location of Data page

The Inlay for the E-MRP is located on the cover of the last page of the EPP. Material for inlay is combination of PET and PVC

1.2.vii Image type – ie digital/photo/laser engraved

Digital photography is stored on the dual chip of the EPP Inlay.

1.2.viii Location of chip

The dual chip are located in the inlay  .

1.2.ix Size of chip

Presently is 64 kB with plan for 73 kB soon

1.2.x Chip suppliers

IRIS Corporation Berhad

1.2.xi Biometric types included

Face and two thumbprints  

1.2.xii ICAO compliant

Yes

1.2.xiv Standard adult cost for E-MRP

USD 80

1.2.xv Is issuance centralised or decentralised?

Decentralised with over 64 issuance centers nationwide.

1.2.xvi Additional comments

Contracts for the ePassport system are awarded by the Department of Immigration Malaysia  in 1998 and Malaysia being the first country in the world to launch its electronic Passport. 

There is a facial recognition software used in the ePassport deployment . The facial characteristics in an applicant’s new passport photo are compared against facial images in Dept of Immigration Malaysia’s database. 

This will allow Dept of Immigration Malaysia to detect applicants who are trying to obtain a duplicate passport or someone trying to obtain a passport using a stolen identity.  

The ePassport system comprises of 2 main parts:

(a) Passport Production System

It consists of the IRIS Main Capture System and IRIS Personalization System. This system incorporates the use of both software and hardware to process, compress and encode data passed from database into the silicon substrate embedded within the passport. 

(b) Data Retrieval System

It provides both software and hardware to retrieve the compressed data in a silicon substrate and decompressed it for display for authentication.

IRIS Corporation Berhad also manufactured its own ePassport readers which are all ICAO compliant and 100% interoperability with others ePassport issued (from recent Berlin Interoperability test.)  

We successfully developed the first ePassport Autogate system that reads ePassport and authenticate fingerprint biometric to a few international airports in UK and USA as part of our effective border control system application .