Daon, a provider of identity software and services, announces that it is supplying core biometric technology to the State of Qatar for the roll-out of a national identity smartcard card using finger, face and iris biometrics. Daon forms part of the ProtechT and QPGI teams who were recently awarded the contract.

The State of Qatar is implementing a new smart identity card, and a series of smartcard applications, as part of the Qatar national identification project. The national identity smartcard will be issued to all citizens and residents and will become the standard identification card for the purposes of interaction with all ministries within the government of Qatar. The project includes the use of finger, face and iris biometrics to provide fast and reliable verification of an individual's identity.

On the ProtechT team, Daon are providing products including their core biometric infrastructure product, DaonEngine, and finger, face and iris biometric snap-in interfaces to leading biometric matching algorithms. These components act as the identity hub, to support cardholder biometric identification credentials and off-line and on-line ID checking.

"This is a major step forward for the State of Qatar ministry of interior in the implementation of its e-Security strategy. The national identification project is focused on the implementation of a national system for up to a million people, leveraging multiple biometric types for multiple biometrically enabled applications including the national identity smartcard, the E-passport program, the E-Gate program and biometric immigration control systems" comment Col. Saleh El Kubaissi, head of computer systems department, ministry of interior, Qatar.

"Daon was selected to be part of our team because of their unrivalled industry expertise in major biometric programmes worldwide in addition to their expert resources and innovative products and technology," comments Antoine Chamieh, COO ProtechT. "Daon are a highly professional and committed partner of ours and have gone the extra mile in helping to ensure programme success"

"We are proud to be part of the ProtechT team in supporting the State of Qatar government with their identification project" comments Tom Grissen, CEO Daon. "Daon is a world leading provider of biometric products and services providing standards based, cost effective identity solutions for large population groups to interact with multiple government agencies for multiple applications. We have always believed that the Gulf region is of strategic importance to Daon and have built a team of technology and service experts who are focused on addressing our customers needs in the territory" adds Grissen.