Technical complications behind biometric passport delays

The delay in the delivery of biometric passports in Algeria is due to technical complications, according to the Director of the National Gendarmerie’s Research and Development Center Colonel Omar Zelagui.

The center provided the Algerian interior ministry with images storing systems and technical codes, Colonel Zelagui told Echorouk on Wednesday.

“The National Gendarmerie’s Research and Development Center offered a two-solution system to different Algerian public administrations. It makes counterfeiting very difficult thanks to the used system which contains security codes,” he added.

The biometric passports and identity cards contain physiological digital information meant to ensure the safety of passengers and ease travel abroad. Those cards also contain digital signatures which can be automatically read on border points.

The same officer said the National Gendarmerie plans to enforce a special strategy aiming at having control on different high technologies and preserving national sovereignty.

The center’s main mission is to ensure the good functioning of technological equipments purchased by the National Gendarmerie and to test any new device.

The center also works on developing information imported equipments and systems usually used to prepare data base for genetic fingerprints. It finds adapted solutions to technical problems and integrates new technologies.

Colonel Zelagui said the center which has been operational since 2007 launched 32 projects. Of them, 16 projects related to biometric passports data base were achieved.