Malaysia’s new ePassport recognised as best in class at prestigious industry awards
THE Malaysian Immigration Department received the 2018 Regional ID Document of the Year Award, in acknowledgement of its innovative and class-leading product, the Malaysian ePassport.
Reconnaissance, the organisers of the highly-acclaimed High Security Printing Asia global conference, revealed the 2018 winners of the Regional ID Document of the Year at a special ceremony in the evening, and receiving the award for Malaysia was Dato’ Seri Mustafar Ali, the Director General of the Malaysian Immigration Department, an agency under the auspices of the Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs, and Datasonic’s Executive Director Steven Ng.
Developed together with Datasonic Group Berhad (DGB) subsidiary, Datasonic Technologies Sdn Bhd (DTSB), the latest Malaysian ePassport was recognized for its outstanding technical sophistication of a document, and for promoting the best in system infrastructure and implementation of a government passport or identity card scheme.
Officially launched in November 2017, the latest version of the Malaysian ePassport received a major upgrade, encompassing enhanced security features and aesthetics. Malaysia was the first in the world to develop and introduce ePassports back in 1998.
The upgraded security features of the new ePassport include an embedded chip in the polycarbonate personal particulars page. The chip’s new position, as opposed to being in the back cover previously, makes the passport harder to forge and allows data to be read more easily.
The new polycarbonate datapage features a variety of built-in security elements including three coloured security stitching thread stitched with back-sewn lock and the groundbreaking true-colour UV security elements based on the innovative Sealys’ True Vision solution by Gemalto, Datasonic’s technology partner.
Offering high-resolution UV images with high brilliance and outstanding colour reproduction, it safeguards the document from duplication and reproduction.
The Malaysian Immigration Department have also selected the highly flexible and patented passport data page hinge with the integrated UV printing element, which guarantees secure and robust sewing of the datapage into the passport booklet.
The sole exclusive contractor for the new ePassport project is Datasonic Technologies Sdn Bhd (DTSB), which in December 2016 was awarded a contract to supply passport booklets for five years.
In committing to provide best quality ePassports, and in support of DTSB’s five-year contract to supply passport polycarbonate datapages and laser-engraving printing system based on per passport produced through open tender in April 2012, Datasonic Group Berhad recently unveiled a new manufacturing factory in Petaling Jaya.