e-smart, Samsung, Kobile team for Korean student ID smartcard project
06 July, 2004
category: Biometrics, Education, Financial, Health
Three companies have inked an agreement to team up to produce student ID smartcards for Korean mid level and high schools and colleges that will include biometrics. Called the Student Management Card Project, the cooperative venture of e-Smart, Samsung, and Kobile is expected to generate $617 million in revenue in the project’s first six years alone.
LAS VEGAS and SEOUL, South Korea, June 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ –e-Smart Technologies, Inc. (OTC Pink Sheets: ESMT), is pleased to announce that pursuant to the previously executed “Master Teaming Agreement” between Samsung SDS Co., Ltd. and the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, e-Smart Korea; e-Smart Korea and Samsung SDS, in association with Korean Company, Kobile Co., Ltd., have entered into a “Student Management Card Project, Cooperation Agreement.” Samsung SDS has projected that this Cooperation Agreement has a total revenue potential during its first six years of operation alone (through 2011) of in excess of the equivalent of US$ 617,000,000 based on today’s exchange rates. The Project is structured as an outsourcing of IT equipment and services to the educational institutions involved. e-Smart shall be the service provider.
The first of a number of planned domestic Korean and international projects that e-Smart Korea and Samsung SDS have agreed to cooperate in doing, the “Student Management Card Project” calls for the installation and operation of the Company’s proprietary Biometric Verification Security System (“BVS2(TM)”) operating platform and the issuance of the Company’s, advanced Super Smart Card(TM) to students, faculty and employees of participating learning institutions throughout Korea.
Specifically, the Student Management Card Project, operating on the BVS2(TM) platform will connect mid-level schools, high schools and colleges nationwide. Each student, faculty member and school employee will be issued an e-Smart Super Smart Card(TM) that will serve as their student ID or employee ID, as applicable and that will also serve as both a physical and logical access card, an attendance card, a medical card, a tuition payment and services card as well as an ATM card, a pre-paid purse and or a debit card, among other planned applications. In addition, the Student Management Card Project includes components for parents to monitor the progress of their children and to insure the appropriate use of school allowances, among other things.
Commenting, Mr. Kwang-kyun Cho, Vice President of Samsung SDS said, “We are very proud to be a participant in this venture with e-Smart Korea and Kobile. Together, we will provide an integrated system featuring e-Smart’s BVS2(TM) platform and Super Smart Cards(TM) to Korean schools, their employees, students and parents with what we believe to be the world’s best, most advanced, secure and privacy protected ID, access, payment and information management system available any where.” Commenting further, Mr. Cho said, “We believe that this project will be a ‘stepping stone’ to the nationwide deployment of the Super Smart Card(TM) in Korea. When people see the security, ease of use and benefits provided by the Super Smart Card, we are convinced that any fears of a biometrically enabled ID card will disappear.
Mr. Hyung-goo Kang, CEO of Kobile then added, “We could not be more pleased with our new project partners, Samsung SDS and e-Smart Korea. Samsung SDS’s strength as a large scale system integrator and software developer, and its history of IT success coupled with e-Smart’s BVS2(TM), Super Smart Card(TM) and their related technologies insures that the system to be provided here in Korea will be the absolute best solution for this project and an example for the rest of the world to follow.”
e-Smart is the exclusive supplier for Asia and the USA of the BVS2 secure, operating platform featuring the Super Smart Card(TM), believed to be the world’s only commercially available smartcard with a complete on-card system for biometric ID verification. Samsung SDS is the leading global IT solutions provider in Korea with an annual revenue of in excess of US $1.43 billion. Kobile is the operator of a loyalty marketing system in Korea, having a nationwide sales network there that is used to attract and retain domestic customers in Korea for the benefit of itself and its clients.
In closing, Ms. Mary Grace, the Company’s Chairman and CEO and e-Smart Korea’s Chairman, stated, “Few people would dispute the need for a counterfeit-proof, tamperproof, biometric ID card to protect underage children from many of the temptations existing in today’s world.”
Ms Grace went on to explain, “For example, e-Smart’s technologies will restrict the purchase of cigarettes or alcohol to those legally allowed to purchase same, will prevent underage access to pornographic websites, will prevent payment fraud over the internet, will monitor the spending of allowance or school money so that it is used for the purposes intended.” Continuing, Ms. Grace then stated, “e-Smart’s biometric system, when configured as a multi-application student ID card, provides both the identity verification necessary to protect our children and our society, all while uniquely protecting the privacy and civil rights of each and every person enrolled.”
Concluding, Ms. Grace said, “We believe that Samsung SDS’s and Kobile’s choice to incorporate e-Smart’s advanced biometric technologies into this project brings vital protection to the people of Korea while giving Korean parents the necessary tools to protect and enhance the safety, security and privacy of their children.”
Safe Harbor Statement:
Statements in this news release that relate to future plans, financial results or projections, events or performance are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. While these tatements are made to convey to the public the Company’s progress, business opportunities and growth prospects, readers are cautioned that such forward-looking statements represent the management’s opinion. While management believes such representations to be true and accurate based on information available to the Company at this time, actual results may differ materially from those described.
CONTACT:
Mary Grace, CEO
Phone: +1-702-447-5210
Media Relations:
Phone: 703-768-7477
e-mail: [email protected]
