SMART
CARDS NEWS ON CHINA
Bankcard
News
1. ICBC
Bank launched Peony Platinum Card
From a recent news release, ICBC Bank and Mastercard
International joined hands to launch the Peony
Platinum Card in Beijing. It is reported that
this Cardholders can have the services of high-qualified
credit consumption, money transfer settlement,
cash deposit and withdraw. Besides, they can also
enjoy the VIP services for the special counters
at the business locations and Financing Center,
and use this Card at all partner's shops of Mastercard
International. Most important is that a free toll
dial call to the Global Emergent Service Center
of Mastercard will ensure that the Card holder
can have the instant access to the service checking
and the urgent cashing services.
2. The first
student's credit card issued in Beijing
From the Press Conference organized by Jincheng
International Credit Management Co.,Ltd. and Guangdong
Development Bank Corporation, the first credit
cards for the university students have been issued
in Beijing by these two organizations, which symbolizes
the official launch of establishment of students
credit system.
In comparison with the other credit cards, it
is reported that this student's credit card has
more functions, such as the filing up of students'
credits, issuance of personal credits reports
and job guidance etc., apart from the over-cashing
consumption, low-value financing and discounted
consumptions at the merchants shops.
3. China
Merchant Bank and C-trip.com launching "C-trip
Travel Credit Card"
Two days ago, one " C-trip Travel Credit
Card" was launched in Beijing by China Merchant
Bank and C-Trip.com. As the first dual currency
travel credit card in China, this Card presents
another firm step for China Merchant Bank towards
promoting its credit card business in the tourism
sector in China, and also indicates the positive
trial implementation of C-Trip.com to develop
the tourism credit system as the largest travel
service supplier in China.
4. ShenKa
Credit Card promotes new products
Shanghai Bank and Mastercard International jointly
organized the inaugural ceremony of Shanghai Bank
ShenKa Mastercard. This is another new product
for Shanghai Bank since its issuance of ShenKa
Credit Card in 2002.
This Card is a dual currency of US dollars and
RMB with the longest free interest of 56 days
and maximum of 50,000 RMB credit limit. Apart
from its functions of one main card and multi-subsidiary
cards, security and caring services, this Card
has the extended and complete services via the
global connected network.
5. China Unionpay launched its
services promotion to tourists to Hong Kong
Before the long week-end of the National Holiday
(October 1), China Unionpay and Hong Kong Tourist
Board started the event of "October Gifts
from Hong Kong and China Unionpay" to pay
back to the card holders via using cards to gain
points at the discounted merchants' stores.
Since January, 2004, when China Unionpay started
its RMB card business operation over the POS terminals
and ATM machines in Hong Kong, it has achieved
tremendous monthly growth of transactions. By
August, there are 250,000 transactions of Hong
Kong Tong cash transactions over ATM at a total
of cashing value of HK$440 million and 370,000
transactions of POS consumption transactions at
a total cash consumption via POS over US$1.05
billion.
At present, there are over 10,000 merchants in
Hong Kong that accept the Unionpay bankcards,
via 14,000 POS terminals and 1,100 ATM machines.
The merchants accepting Unionpay bankcards cover
the stores ranging from department stores, brands
stores to the jewellery and diamonds stores, from
Audio/Video shops, fashions to the beauty saloons
and restaurants and entertainment etc. Tourists
from mainland can free information checking at
the ATM with Unionpay logos in Hong Kong and cash
out the equivalent HK dollars to RMB5,000 every
day.
6. Beijing PetroChina stations
accepting international bankcards
PetroChina has started its fuel filling with bankcards
at 101 gas stations in Beijing. According to the
office manager of Beijing Municipal Bankcard Administration,
SinoPech is beginning to install the card facilities
at its 500 gas stations in Beijing.
As the Chief of Information Center of North China
Sales Company of SinoPech said, the POS terminals
installed by SinoPech will not only accept the
China Unionpay cards, but also will accept the
international bankcards issued by Visa, MasterCard,
JCB and American Express. With this card consumption
for gas filling, the cardholders can also do shopping
at the convenient stores of the Stations. SinoPech
Group has been busy in talking with Unionpay branches
in the cities of Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan and Tianjin
to install the POS terminals. This Group hopes
that the families with cars can enjoy the gas
filling with cards as free as the Beijing citizens.
Telecom
News
7. Axalto's Multi-application
Simera Airflex Card supporting UP New trend of
China Unicom
Days ago, Axalto announced that it had successfully
delivered to China Unicom the largest 64K UIM
CDMA card in the world. With this introduction
of Simera Airflex in Guangdong Province from Axalto,
China Unicom plans to promote a series of value-added
services of UP New Trend targeting the new generations
of subscribers.
UP New Trend is a first national brand targeting
the youngsters from China Unicom. The Simera Airflex
card is tailor-made for the CDMA users of UP New
Trend brand, which is supplied by Axalto. At present,
this 64K card is R-UIM card of the largest capacity
for commercial investment in the world and it
can support the value-added services for Unicom
Online business of the national format and Guangdong
UP New Trend. These two products include the exciting
applications, such as lovers' talk, powerful academy,
hot spot news, and humors' wave and spicy recommendations
etc. The users can make selections from the menu
to choose their favorite functions so as to avoid
the inconvenience of remembering different service
passwords.
8. CDMA terminal separation
from cards promoted to the global market
The Global Cooperation Forum on the CDMA Terminal
Separation from Cards was organized by China Unicom
in Beijing days ago. There were 200 representatives
from 19 CDMA operators and terminal manufacturers,
system equipment suppliers and card suppliers
attending this Forum.
The two days'Forum addressed the topics ranging
from technical standards for separation with cards,
the marketing strategy and implementing programs
for the separation, dual slots system and the
market opportunity, the CDMA1X value added applications.
The partners and China Unicom put on display the
terminals of the separation and the variety of
CDMA applications.
9. XiaoLingtong with separation from cards
on the market for sale in October
UT Starcom has developed the first card separated
terminal - Xiaolingtong in the world and will
put on sale in October. The launch of this Xiaolingtong
Terminal represents the Second Revolution of its
technology, which changes the sale model of relying
on the telecom operators. This large potential
market attracts more strong manufacturers to join
this market.
It is reported that UT Starcom launched this Separation
technology will change the integrated mode of
card and terminal from its present status. Instead,
the newly launched model can store the personal
data into one encrypted smart card - PIM card.
News
in General
10. China encouraging the development of IC
industry
From our SCFC news reporter, the State Commission
of Development and Reform has decided to stop
the policy of 6% import value-added tax ( the
tax return upon payment ) for the IC products
which is designed by the local designing company
and manufactured on OEM basis from September 1,
2004. And on April 1, 2005, the policy (the tax
return upon payment) will be halted for the over
tax of VAT on the local manufactured IC products.
According to the responsible officer, Chinese
Government pays a greater attention to the IC
industry and will put more incentives for the
development of this industry.
11. The first group of national
electronic information industrial bases approved
On Sept. 28, the Ministry of Information Industry-MII
announced in Beijing that the first group of national
electronic information industrial bases has been
approved to set up in Beijing, Tianjin, Qindao,
Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Fujian,
Xiamen coastal areas and the Guangdong Pearl River
Delta region. Mr. Wang Xudong, Minister of Ministry
of Information Industry pointed out that the construction
of the national electronic information industrial
bases is an important event in the history of
the Chinese national information industry. This
is one strategic approach for the Chinese electronic
industry to grow from a large scale into the stronger
basis, further more this is a trial implement
for the governmental authorities to transform
the mentality and functions so as to direct and
regulate or promote the regional industrial development.
This national electronic information industrial
base stands for the regions concentrated with
the large-scale , strong in R&D and leading
enterprises, the well-established industrial chains
and improved accommodated service systems. The
first 9 bases have achieved their sales revenue,
industrial growth value, profit tax and export
revenue respectively at 81.0%, 75.7%, 82.6%. These
regions have the most gathering of national electronic
R&D academies, institutes and the national-level
R&D centers apart from the attracting center
for the overseas' investors for electronics. These
attractions have upgraded the competing power
of the regions, which helps implement the strategic
approach for the building China into the power
country of electronics in the world.
12. Haerbin city achieved outstanding
outcome for the information construction
Centering on the building Haerbin into Digital
Haerbin City with informatization and on the E-government,
Haerbin has gained outstanding achievement in
promoting the enterprise informatization, agricultural
informatization and the key application projects.
The People's bank of China in Haerbin City organized
all commercial banks to take vigorous efforts
in enhancing the bankcard project. From the bankcard
testing result, the success rate of transaction
has gained improvement with ATM testing rate at
90%, POS transactions at 96% and 84% for the POS
pre-authenticated transactions. The branches of
ICBC, Agricultural Bank, Construction Bank, Communication
Bank, and Everbright Bank have built up their
infrastructure of cross-banking interop application.
Over 310,000 bankcards have been issued with China
Unionpay Logo. In the end of 2003, all the commercial
banks issued a total of 7.59 million cards with
276 card issuing stations, 795 ATMs installed,
470 POS terminals and 8153 licensed merchants.
Haerbin Municipal Education Bureau proposed that
to build Internet is to build schools, in a progressive
approach to promote the School to School Internet
project. 95% of the schools in the city have achieved
the target of School to School Internet, and 50%
of the schools have completed the Internet construction,
with 60% from the rural schools. There are 51
schools in 12 counties built up with the school
Internet.
13. China sees 30 million contactless
IC cards in 2007
From a reliable source of Cards Tech & Security,
by 2007, China is expected to have a 50% growth
of contactless IC card in sales at a total of
30 million. Since 1996, the eighty cities of all
660 cities in China have issued over 20 million
contactless IC cards as the temporary tickets.
The majority of this IC ticket uses MIFARE technology
from Philips Semi-conductor.
14. The First Global RFID China Forum held
in Beijing
On October 10 to 11, the first Global RFID China
Forum was held in Beiing, China World Trade Center.
This Forum was organized by Shorecliff Communication
LLC and Spark-ICE Beijing, and this is the first
time for Shorecliff to move this event to China.
Over dozens of top-level speakers, experts and
related leading officials from 20 countries and
regions have been present at this Forum. The speakers
addressed the RFID solutions, and displayed the
high-end RFID products. The officers from the
leading authorities have been invited to attend
the Forum, addressing on the Chinese intellectual
property efforts and the application perspectives.
News
on the Smart Cards Projects in China
15. Beijing Intelligent Traffic Development
Plan Achieving its short-term target
The Director of Beijing Municipal Transport
Development Center stated that the Headache
of the difficult traveling in Beijing would
be solved starting from 2005 at the 2nd Sino-European
Metropolitan City Development Seminar opened
on October 13.
The Director disclosed the short-term goal
of the Capital intelligent transport development
plan will be completed by 2005. The detailed
contents include as follow:
-to speed up the construction of transport
infrastructure;
-to expand the urban road network, improving
the traffic structure and increasing the traffic
volume of the public transport;
-to extend the coverage of the transport information;
-to build up the advanced urban public transport
system, traffic management system, the travellors'
information system and long-distance passengers
and cargos' operation management system;
-to widely promote the application of YiKaTong
IC card in the transports of metro, light-rails
and public transport (buses and cable
cars etc.).
16. Nanjin Metro contactless
smart cards ticket vending system put into the
market
Nanjin Panda electronic (Share-holding) Co.,Ltd.
and French Thalles CGA Company have jointly established
with 40% and 60% shares the Nanjin Thalles Panda
Transport System Co.,Ltd.. This joint-ventured
company will supply its transport equipment to
the rail transport operators to the Chinese national
market and South-eastern Asian market. One of
the first installed system has been done for Line
1 of Nanjin Metro automatic fare collecting system
with contactless smart card.
This Line 1 Metro includes one central processing
system, ticketing system at all stations, the
Intranet equipment, the auto gate with contactless
card readers, TVM, sales terminals and handheld
ticket checking devices as well as one maintenance
center. The Deputy General Manager of Nanjin Metro
Railway Co.,Ltd. and the Vice General of the Nanjin
Metro Railway Engineering Project said, the Nanjin
Municipal Authority had claimed to finish the
construction of Line 1 by September of 2005, by
when one YiKaTong System (All-in-one System) would
cover pubic buses, taxi and ferry, and the metro
system would be connected with YiKaTong system,
he said. With one card, the Nanjin citizens will
change for the new YiKaTong card with the existing
IC card.
17. Fujian Province introduces YiKaTong (All-in-one)
to hospitals, supermarkets, water and power supply
in 2005
China Unionpay Fujian Branch disclosed to the
reporter that Financing IC Card YiKaTong as one
integral part of Digital Fujian in Fujian Province
has passed the technical and business evaluation
and review and come into the phase of Internet
platform construction. This is the first and most
advanced YiKaTong system in accordance to the
national financing standard in China.
"Financing IC Card YiKaTong" is reported
to be the supplement to the existing magstripe
card, and make a regulating effort to the existing
closed industrial IC card application system so
as to break the monopoly building from the provincial
bankcard interop network. Taking the advantage
of the unified standard, and utilizing the 5000
physical networks and over 10,000 terminals from
all provincial banks, one payment action of YiKaTong
Card for all social payment will be achieved based
on the open marketing operation in Fujian Province.
It is said that this system will enable the cardholders
to pay the bills of water, power and gas supply,
and public transport, as well as the low-value
payment of cable TV, Internet, taxi, hospital
registration, tourism, petro gas, restaurants/hotels,
real-estates and supermarket. etc. Besides, this
system can also be connected with the healthcare,
social welfare and tax-control systems, and build
the connection with the highway toll payments
and IC card system on the campuses.
18. Huaxia Campus card introduced
to the Western Chinese Engineering University
Recently, Huaxia Campus cards have been issued
in the Jinye College of Western Chinese Engineering
University. This campus card developed by Huaxia
Bank XiAn Branch can be used with Huaxia Bankcard
and Campus card to conduct the functions of auto
and self-service money transfer, to pay for the
meals, depositing of money, consumptions and students'
ID. Different from the other campus cards, Huaxia
campus card is physically separated with Huaxia
Bankcard. That's to say, Huaxia Bankcard can be
used to settle the e-currency payment at the bankcard
business operation locations, bank ATMs, shops,
hotels and restaurants, while Campus card could
only be used on campus for auto and self-service
transfer of money. When the alarm is set for the
limits of money stored in the campus cards, the
campus system will automatically deduct RMB100
from the current account of the Huaxia Bankcard
into the campus cards.
19. Fujian Xiamen social welfare
IC card project rolled out
On October 11, the inaugural ceremony of the Social
Welfare Card of P.R.China issued by Xiamen City
was held at Xiamen Hotel. This social welfare
card is the application carrier of citizen service
information system. It is reported that this card
will enable to proceed for the application of
social insurance, job employment, and will be
expanded to the sectors of public security, civil
affairs, family planning, education, healthcare,
housing allowance management center, labor affairs
and political and labor union etc.
20. Gemplus Goldpac Joins hands
with Shaoxin urban public transport
Recently, Gemplus Goldpac Holdings won the tender
among the competing suppliers in the IC card tender
project for the Shaoxin Urban Public Transport
YiKaTong IC Card Co.,Ltd., based on the powerful
technical backup of Gemplus.
With the strong technical backup of Gemplus, Goldpac
company has the advantage of rich experience in
urban public transport, high-way toll gates, banking
card and applications, social welfare IC cards,
the contactless IC card has been widely applied
in the Urban Public transport, of cities in Guangzhou
Yangchen Tong, Dalian, Chendu, Ningbo, Chongqin,
Hefei, Zenjiang, Luzhou, Anshan, Jining, Weihai,
Jiaxin, Taiyuan, Qindao, Xiamen, Dongyin, Liuzhou,
Macau etc.
21. IC cards can be reloaded
at banks in Shenyang City
From the news, Shenyang Passengers Buses Group
has decided to introduce the bill payment via
banking networks based on the comprehensive advises
from the experts, citizens and the good referenced
cases in China, in order to speed up the urban
public transport IC card e-currency fare collection
and to provide convenience for the citizens to
purchase IC cards to reload the card.
It is reported that the program of bill payment
via banking network is under study. At present,
Shenyang Passengers Buses Group has expanded the
business space of re-loading, adding more locations
of re-loading and extending of business hours
so as to solve the difficulty for the citizens
to re-load the cards. From the internal report
of the Group, Shenyang is going to integrate the
bankcard with urban public IC cards in order to
help the citizens pay with this card the bus ticketing,
settle the bills of low-value consumptions. This
effort will save lots of time and efforts of re-loading
in the city.
22. Jinsui Campus IC card issued
by Agriculture Bank in Xinjiang
Recently, 16,000 Jinsui Campus IC cards have been
rolled out at Xinjiang Finance College, hence
starting the issuance of Jinsui Campus card from
Agriculture Bank in China.
It is reported that Jinsui Campus card is consisted
of the Unionpay debit card of Agriculture Bank,
College IC card, money transfer machines, auto-pay
machines, ATMs, POS terminals. This is the first
card integrated with bankcard and campus YiKaTong
in Xinjiang and at the campus of Xinjiang areas.
This Agriculture Bank has installed money transfer
machines, bill payment machines, ATMs, window-service
machines and e-file access control. This is a
24 hours' service. This card has won the appraisals
from the students and their families because it
has the functions of money depositing and withdrawal,
shopping and bill payment outside the campus while
it has the unique functions for the tuition management,
duty checking, computer rooms and IC card for
meals and students registrations.
News on
Vendors
23. Infineon's investment in
China reaching a total of 1.2 billion dollars
by 2007
It is reported that Infineon Technology will total
its investment at 1.2 billion US dollars in China
by 2007 with its existing employed staff growing
from 1,200 to 3,000.
The spokesman confirmed this news recently, saying
that Infineon plans to take a 12% market share
of semi-conductor industry in China within the
next five years. This increase percentage will
double comparing with the present 3.7%, with the
intention of upgrading its position from No. 5
upto No. 4. The present No. 4 is Korean Samsung.
24. Watchdata's new smart meters
launched in Beijing
From our magazine report, Watchdata System has
announced recently that its newly developed smart
water meter system has been put into the application
of Beijing Municipal Urban Management sectors,
such as the residents in Tongzhou district can
use mobile phones to pay their water consumption
bills without having to move out of the house.
This smart water system can take real time tracking
for the water consumption status and bill payment
for the families, so that the Urban Water Company
do not have to pay regular visits to check for
the meters and collect the money from door to
door. And the residents have not need to pay their
bills at the appointed business locations, but
all headaches of bill payment can be solved by
mobile phones at home. The system developed by
Watchdata helps the urban administrative bodies
simplify their business proceedings, improve the
water consumption cost and raise the efficiency
of the official operations, while this also cuts
the costs and time of the payment by the residents.
25. Gemplus Goldpac winning
the YiKaTong Project at the Schools in Wuxi City
At one recent tender for school YiKaTong Card
project in Wuxi city organized by Wuxi Education
Commission and Wuxi Commerce Bank, Goldpac has
won the project for YiKaTong Card project, including
the supply of system platform, money transfer
machines and cards. This shows the strength of
Goldpac company in the technical and competing
aspects for School YiKaTong.
This project covers all the schools in Wuxi city,
with a milestone project for the promoting school
YiKaTong in this city.
26. G & D Wanda totaling
its roll-out at 1.0 billion cards in China over
the past 10 years
Huangshi Wanda G&D announced recently that
this company had totally rolled out over 1.0 billion
cards over the past ten years with its annual
production capacity at 280 million cards. Among
the 1.0 billion cards, 320 million for banking,
65 million for telecom and 50 million cards for
different sectors in social welfare, construction,
customs, taxation and industry and commerce, the
products and services ranging from financing,
telecom to issuance, transport and healthcare
etc.
27. Infineon Suzhou plant put
in operation
Days ago, the German HQ Infineon announced that
the first pack of storage products will be assembled
from its Suzhou plant by the end of 2004, and
volume production is planned to put in operation
by early 2005. The Suzhou Assembly Plant is officially
named as Infineon Technology (Suzhou) Co.,Ltd.
At the same time, Infineon is planning to set
up on IT development center of production techniques
in Suzhou. The new plant is going to be set up
in phases according to the global semi-conductors
industry. The overall project will invest about
1.0 billion US dollars. According the new CEO,
Infineon Suzhou Plant will have the largest production
capacity of 1.0 billion storage chip products
every year.
28. Huaxu Card Company
passing the test of readers for the 2nd Generation
of National ID card
In May, 2004, Huaxu Company won the tender for
supplying as the readers for the 2nd Generation
of National ID card by Ministry of Public Security.
This company has launched series of readers meeting
the needs of 2nd Generation of National ID Cards.
In mid of September, Huaxu participated in the
central test for the National ID cards organized
by the Ministry of Public Security. During the
test, Huaxu company presented two readers complying
with the technical specifications of GA450-2003
for the Dest-top ID Card Readers for Citizens
and 1GA450-2003 No 1 Revised Technical Specification
for the Dest-top ID Card Readers for Citizens.
On September 27, Huaxu had its products successfully
tested by the Ministry of Public Security, and
finally obtained the test report from the Quality
Test Center of Security and Police Electronic
Products of Ministry of Public Security. Having
passed this test, Huaxu has proved that it can
supply the products for the 2nd Generation of
National ID Cards Project according to the state
regulated standards.
