Columbia to roll out biometric ID cards

Columbia is to roll out one of the largest biometric-based national ID card projects in Latin America. New Colombian laws state that all citizens will have to carry the new ID card before 31 December 2009. As a result, all systems will be delivered and operational by the end of 2006.

The project, which will be implemented by Sagem Défense Sécurité, was ordered by La Registraduria Nacional del Estado Civil (RNEC) in a 366.7-billion-peso (US$159 million) contract.

Sagem is tasked with building on work it performed in 1997 to modernize and automate the civil registry and citizen ID. The contract calls for the company to continue upgrading Columbia’s identity documents by providing new, secure biometric ID cards and homogenizing and updating the civil registry.

In 1997, Sagem set up an AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System) with a capacity of 10 million records to secure the issue of the new ID cards. Under the terms of the new contract, Sagem Défense Sécurité will increase the capacity of the AFIS to 45 million records, register 33 million individuals across the country using portable enrolment stations and digitize 30 million paper tenprints.

Once the AFIS and ID card production system are modernized, the integrator will produce 33 million additional biometric ID cards for all citizens over 14.

Another part of the project is to increase the capacity of the civil registry’s central site and modernize the electronic management of civil registry records. To do so, it will digitize 30 million records. In addition, 900 additional workstations will be deployed across the country bringing the total number to 1,900.