French firm\\\'s offer to produce 90m SNIDs approved

The Cabinet Purchase Committee on Wednesday approved the offer of Oberthur Technologies, a French company, for production and distribution of 9 crore (90 million) Smart National Identity Cards (Smart NIDs) under an Election Commission project, reports UNB.

A meeting of the committee, chaired by Finance Minister AMA Muhith, gave the nod to the French firm's proposal to produce and distribute the NIDs at a contract value of over Tk 7.96 billion (about $ 102.571 million).

Cabinet Division officials said now the Cabinet body's proceedings will be sent to the Prime Minister's Office for approval. Once it's approved by the PMO, the Election Commission (EC) will sign a deal with Oberthur Technologies to start its job.

Official sources said the EC has undertaken the Smart NID (SNID) project with financial support from the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA).