Smart cards offer governments an economical and effective solution for civilian-based projects, enabling foolproof authentication and efficient governance. It also allows for integration of varied services such as social security, e-purse, and phone cards, enhancing efficacy and reducing paperwork. These benefits are likely to increase the number of e-government projects and pilots that provide customized and easy online services to citizens world over. While countries such as Malaysia, Finland, Japan and Taiwan have been issuing smart cards based national ID and healthcare cards, many others are working on pilot projects such as smart card based driving licenses, etc.

This Frost & Sullivan research service offers an in-depth analysis of the world government and identification (ID) smart card markets. The study provides vital information on application sub sectors such as employee ID, national ID, and healthcare and other application markets. The research service takes a global perspective and includes market drivers and restraints, revenue forecasts, and data on unit shipments.

ICAO Recommendation Drives Growth in Contactless Smart Cards Market

"The United States’ decision to make e-passports mandatory for visitors from the 27 ‘Visa Waiver’ countries, has given rise to e-passport initiatives in the member countries," says the analyst of this research. "The International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) recommendations for a combination of contactless chips and biometrics technology to be used for new secure machine-readable passports, will play a key role in standardizing such initiatives, even in non-visa waiver countries."

The U.S. Government’s mandate to these 27 countries, to follow the ICAO recommendations by the 2005-06 deadline is expected to provide a significant boost to the smart cards market.

Large-scale Global Demand Provides Mounting Opportunities of Revenue Increase

The government smart cards market is expected to escalate following the large-scale projects allowing rapid revenue growth. "In North America alone, numerous government smart card based employee ID programs will provide significant smart card unit shipments in the region," notes the analyst. "This is supported by large-scale healthcare projects in Europe and the eventual issuance of contactless chip-based passports by non-Visa Waiver program countries."