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EC plans to export surplus smartcards in 2021
The Election Commission is drawing up plans to export smartcards after meeting domestic demand.
Published : 6 Nov 2019, 02:46 PM
Updated : 6 Nov 2019, 02:46 PM
It hopes to start the process in 2021, Brig Gen Mohammad Saidul Islam, the director general at the commission's NID Registration Wing, said at the launch of the expatriate voter registration programme on Tuesday.
The EC had on several occasions in the past reiterated plans to hand over NID smartcards to the over 104 million voters of the country. It has managed to complete only a third of the process so far.
The commission started off by importing blank smartcards from French company Oberthur Technologies before inputting citizens' details and distributing them. The plan was to hand the smart cards to over 90 million people by 2018.
However, the process stalled after the deal with the French firm was terminated in 2017.
The government subsequently tasked state-owned company Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory with implementing the project and about 30 percent of voters have received smartcards so far.
"We are now making the smartcards ourselves under the supervision of the Bangladesh Army. In the near future, opportunities will arise to export smartcards after meeting the country’s demand. Hopefully, it will become possible to export smartcards from July 2021,” said Saidul.
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