The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is pleased to announce the signing of a contract this morning by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Hon. Fred Mitchell and Mr. James Ram, President of Indusa LLC, a Greenville, South Carolina based IT development and consulting firm, for the provision of e-passports, biometric visas, work permits and other identity documents, as well as a border control management system.

For this integrated project, Indusa has partnered with Iris Berhad, a Malaysian global security solution provider and the company which pioneered the world’s first electronic passport and national multi-application smart card. Another implementation partner is the British company De La Rue, the world’s largest commercial security provider and papermaker, and a long time provider of our Bahamian passport.

While this combined project will take a year to be fully implemented, the first set of new passports is expected to be issued by September 2007. The visas should be available earlier. The Ministry is working with the Attorney General’s office with a view to drafting new regulations to implement new visas in different categories.

In earlier statements, I have said that the idea of the new passports is to update the security features on Bahamian identity documents and to bring these documents into compliance with the standards mandated by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) before May 2010.

The passports have not yet been priced but when they become available they are likely to be substantially higher in cost than the existing passport but more durable. There will be an electronic chip in this passport and it will contain a fingerprint as an identifying marker for the passport.

I have read recently some reports that emanating from Germany that even e passports can be cloned. I have had this checked and I am advised Indusa’s solution which involves a multi-level identity management solution combining machine readable passports with chip-based biometrics authentication for fingerprints, facial characteristics and signature capture, contains adequate safeguards to ensure that the passport holder is, indeed, the person to whom the passport was issued by Bahamian passport issuing authorities. We need therefore to note that while no system is foolproof the system will be more secure than the existing document and further this security will be enhanced by levels of security that will all have to be shown to be correct before the identity is accepted. There was an article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal 21^st December that addresses this concern.

The new passport, visa and work permit system will allow for an integrated data base so that immigration and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the police will all be connected and be able to better able the management of our border.

The signing of this contract is after a protracted and tortuous history of investigation and tendering. The contract is for the amount of $12,792,647.86. This provides for the passports (official, diplomatic, ordinary, certificates of identity), work permits, permanent resident cards, spousal permits, visas and the border management control system including the hardware and software. The team that chose the system was a combination of the officials from the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Immigration. No politician sat in on these processes and the vendor chosen was approved by the Tender’s Board in accordance with law and practice in contracts of this size.

I hope that in being as exhaustive as we appear to have been that we will provide a better quality of service to the Bahamian public and I believe that it will lead to the enhancement of the security of our state and the easing of the passage of our citizens throughout the world.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Nassau, Bahamas