Rostelecom, Sitronics sign agreement on chips production

ST. PETERSBURG, June 17 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's national
telecommunications company Rostelecom and a major producer of micro
elements Sitronics signed an agreement on implementation of the Electronic
Government project, where Sitronics will produce micro chips for banking
cards.
The sides signed the agreement during the St. Petersburg international
economic forum on Thursday.
Sitronics will produce chips and some elements for plastic cards,
which will carry electronic signatures, and Rostelecom will be responsible
for providing access to the united portal of state services with use of
these cards from any gadget. Visa and Mastercard will be responsible for
processing, and issuers will include Alfa Bank, VTB, Bank of Moscow, Bank
of St. Petersburg and about ten more banks, Rostelecom's CEO Alexander
Provotorov said.
"Users should have a protected access to state services when they use
electronic devices," Sitronics' CEO Sergei Aslanyan said. "We open a
factory to produce 90-nano-metre chips and they will be universal
platforms for providing state services."
The company plans to produce by 2017 chips for about 50 million cards.
Production capacity is sufficient, and everything will depend on demand
for cards, he explained.
Now there is a limited number of such cards, which were produced under
pilot projects, which would continue for another four to six weeks. Those
cards may be used for paying for state services, fines or other payments
using either special machines, which will be installed throughout Russia,
or using special reading devices connected to computers, Deputy CEO of
Rostelecom Alexei Nashchekin said.