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Macau and Hong Kong, two cities 60 kilometers apart returned to China by colonial powers in recent years, have announced steps toward issuing mandatory ID cards carrying chips. Both cities are hoping to better control their busy borders with China as well as to encourage citizens to access government services via the Internet using digital credentials stored on the smart cards. Macau last month awarded a US$13 million system to German technology giant Siemens deliver 540,000 chip-based ID cards. The first cards will be issued in November, and each card will carry a digital version of the holder’s fingerprint for identification. The rollout is expected to take four years as the government attempts to convert fingerprint and other personal data from the existing paper ID cards into digital form. Digital certificates on the card will allow citizens initially to register online address changes, marriages, births and other events. More applications are likely to be added in the future, sources say. The smart cards will carry 32-kilobyte chips from Siemens’ former chip-making division, Infineon Technologies, and the smart cards will be produced by Munich-based Giesecke & Devrient and use the Java Card platform. Japan’s NEC Corp. will provide the biometrics technology and Bell ID of the Netherlands the card-management system. Hong Kong, meanwhile, awarded NEC a US$12 million contract to build a computer system and digitize data for Hong Kong’s smart card IDs, which are to be introduced in 2003 to the city’s population of 6.8 million. The government will offer citizens a digital certificate free for one year for use with the cards, Carrie Yau, secretary of Information Technology and Broadcasting, announced last month. Certificate holders can renew driver’s licenses, trade stocks and carry out other transactions online with the digital credentials. Hongkong Post, which issues the certificates, normally charges US$6.50 per year for a certificate. Responding to privacy concerns, Yau also said that other applications for the card—such as driver’s license, library card and an electronic purse—would be optional. The Hong Kong card is to be issued in phases from 2003 to 2007. (1-8