World's largest smart card firm to set up in Victoria

The French company Gemplus - the world's largest producer of smart cards - has chosen Victoria as its headquarters to develop and manufacture smart cards for the Asia-Pacific region.

The cards will be produced in a joint venture with Australia's biggest plastic card manufacturer, Leigh-Mardon, at the latter's existing site in Highett. A new company, L-M Gemplus Pty Ltd, has also been formed for the purpose.

The joint venture is likely attract $32.5 million in investment and will be worth almost $400 million in import replacement.

The credit card-sized cards contain a micro-processor which can store and securely process information such as a person's fingerprints and eye color to their bank account and passport numbers. A single card can provide several applications.

Gemplus is also currently involved in plans for a pilot program in the Dandenong area which will involve the use of smartcards by some patients in the Southern Health Care Network. This will allow patients to store their medical history on smart cards which can then be accessed by medical practitioners who have been given a security clearance.

The system will allow patients to have full control over which medical practitioners have access to their records, but will be particularly valuable in an emergency situation by allowing a patient's records to be recalled instantly by an practitioner with special security clearance.

Gemplus is the latest company to recognise Victoria's strength as a leading centre for new information age technologies. Its decision follows the announcement earlier this year by the smart card consortium Mondex Australia, to locate its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Melbourne.

(News Release, Minister for Information Technology and Multimedia, November 24, 1998)