The new so called "Citizen Card" will replace several ID documents and will become the official ID document for all Portuguese citizens. The card will include functions for simple, fast and secure interaction with government administrations, civil identification, tax payment, social security, health, and in the future, elections.

A first pilot phase has started in the Azores region. After the initial roll-out more than 2 million cards will be rolled out yearly. Precise Biometrics will supply 14 million licenses over a seven-year contract period. The project also includes delivery of the Precise 250 MC fingerprint readers.

Precise Biometrics has won the procurement contract in a consortium led by the digital security leader Gemalto, with whom Precise Biometrics also won the procurement contract for national ID cards in Qatar in 2006.

"This is our first national ID card project in Europe, and after our successes in Asia and the Middle East we are very pleased about this breakthrough on the European market. Additional applications are planned for the Portuguese national ID cards in the future, so this project has the potential to become even bigger", says Thomas Marschall, President and CEO of Precise Biometrics AB.

Precise Biometrics algorithm Precise BioMatch(TM) is made available on all Java(TM) cards and is the Match-on-Card technology with the best performance world-wide and the smart card security is enhanced.