Armenia’s transition to new passports to cost about €5mln

Yerevan/Mediamax/. Two companies have reached the finals of the tender for the production of biometric passports and ID cards in Armenia: Polish Security Printing Works (PSPW) and the French Oberthur Technologies.

8 foreign companies, including the Russian “Sitronix” took part in the tender for the production of new Armenian passports. Head of Visa and Passport Department of Armenian Police, Norayr Muradkhanian said today that the tender winner will be announced in the nearest future, Mediamax reports.

The passing to new passports is estimated at nearly €5mln: issuing of ID-cards for use inside the country will cost AMD 1000, whereas the price of biometric passports (for foreign trips) has not been defined yet, it will make nearly AMD 15 000.

The process of allocation of new passports is to start this September. It doesn’t imply urgent change of acting passports and the citizens may use their current passports (both within the country and outside it) until the end of validity date.

The ID-card will include e-signature, and the passport- the citizen’s fingerprints. The information included into documents will be enlarged in the future. The biometric passport will be issued for 5 years and the ID card- for 10.