ISLAMABAD: The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has been designated as the Asian leader for providing identity-based multi-biometric technology solutions.

“NADRA’s e-govt solutions are relevant to Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Russia who look at the success story of NADRA and learn how to use it as a strategic partner to develop similar solutions,” said Mike Chamberlain, chairman of the UK-based Pira International, according to NADRA Deputy Chairman Tariq Malik.

Tariq Malik told ‘The Statesmen’ from Prague that Mike Chamberlain was speaking at an international conference on ‘The Future of Personal Identification’ being held in Prague from January 26 to 29 under the auspices of Pira International, an expert in market sizing, strategic forecasting and assessing the impact of biometrics, RFID, Smart Card technology and trends.

“I think NADRA has poised itself as a world leader in Asia and has a strong presence in the future of personal ID market when we talk about strategic forecasts and analysis to 2014 trends,” said Chamberlain. “It’s definitely going to assert itself as a dominant Asian player in near future,” he added.

Tariq Malik told the conference that transparency and outreach in any financial institution, human development and women empowerment programme were not possible without identity-based secure identity cards. He said that Pakistan had witnessed so many failed programmes just because those lacked transparency, which shattered the confidence of foreign donors. He said efficient handling of internally displaced persons and the launch of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) by the Pakistan government restored that confidence.