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| KOMSCO CEO Bahn Jahng-Shick, left, shakes hands with Kyrgyzstan's Minister of Digital Development Talantbek Imanov, after signing an MOU in Kyrgyzstan. Courtesy of KOMSCO |
By Yoon Ja-young
The state-run Korea Minting, Security Printing & ID Card Operating Corp. (KOMSCO) has signed an MOU with the Kyrgyzstan government to cooperate in the latter's e-government project, which will pave the way for the export of KOMSCO's technologies in digital identification cards and authentication.
According to KOMSCO, Wednesday, its CEO Bahn Jahng-Shick signed an MOU with Kyrgyzstan's Minister of Digital Development Talantbek Imanov, and suggested joint projects, including the issuance of mobile identification cards and the digitization of tax payment stamps.
KOMSCO, which offers advanced technology in mobile identification cards, has been supplying the Kyrgyzstan government with chip-embedded resident cards since 2017, through an official development assistance (ODA) program. Following the MOU, the Korean company is expected to cooperate with the Kyrgyzstan government in its project to upgrade the resident cards into mobile ones.
KOMSCO also plans to export its authentication technology to Kyrgyzstan, so that liquor and tobacco products circulating in the country can have authentication labels on them to prevent tax evasion and forgery.
The Central Asian country has been putting efforts into digitization, also cooperating closely with the Korean government in ICT. KOMSCO has been designated by the Korean government as an organization in charge of mobile identification cards, and has been testing the issuance of mobile driver's licenses in Seoul and Daejeon.
Bahn said the MOU will provide an opportunity for the company to present its digital identification card and anti-forgery technologies abroad.
"We will expand our exports to the digital sector from the traditional areas of security paper and ink," he said.
