IDEMIA has opened its first APAC region office, which includes a new ‘Innovation Centre’ for R&D. The facilities are located in Singapore, which IDEMIA called “a leading innovation and financial hub” in a statement announcing the development, adding that the city-state is a “gateway to the rest of Asia Pacific”.
The Innovation Centre, meanwhile, “will showcase advanced technologies in identity security to support partners and customers on their digital transformation journey,” the company explained, noting that featured solutions will include mobile and Internet of Things solutions, mobile payments technology, biometric payment cards, and passenger processing technology for airports. IDEMIA has already demonstrated the latter kind of technology in a real world deployment at Singapore’s Changi Airport, whose Terminal 4 features facial recognition for departing travelers.
IDEMIA’s new APAC office signals intensifying global competition in the region’s biometrics sector, coming just about a week after Japan’s NEC Corporation announced an ‘Open Innovation Centre‘, which opened in the country with the support of the Singapore Economic Development Board.
IDEMIA’s new office, meanwhile, opened with France’s ambassador to Singapore, Marc Abensour, in attendance. Commenting on the development in a statement, Abensour said it was “timely as 2018 has been declared the France-Singapore Year of Innovation which recently led to the signing of a joint roadmap for deepening cooperation in digital innovation, internet governance and cybersecurity during Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s visit to Paris in July 2018.”
–
October 3, 2018 – by Alex Perala
Follow Us