Bangladesh has embarked on the necessary preparations to deepen local supply chain for ePassports in 2021. The country used its German-based technology partner Veridos to equip its 70 regional passport offices with the necessary IT resources for providing ePassports.

Workstations with biometric enrollment equipment enable staff at all passport offices to collect the necessary data from citizens, including fingerprints, iris scans and color photos. Since January 2020, citizens have been able to schedule online appointments for enrollment, which allows them to avoid long wait times. More than half a million citizens have applied for ePassports via the online portal. 

The production and personalization center for the new ePassports in the capital, Dhaka, was completed in 2020 and it contains a state-of-the-art data center and is equipped with modern personalization machines. Its capacity amounts to 25,000 ePassports per day. Veridos also provided 15 eGates to airports in Bangladesh. This year, the country will have 35 additional eGates installed.