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Our Bureau CHENNAI, June 22
The Hindu Versatile Card Private Ltd. (VCP), the wholly-owned subsidiary of the US-based plastic cards manufacturer, Versatile Card Technology, Inc. (VCT), will commence production at its 100 per cent export-oriented facility near Chennai on Sunday. At a press conference here today, Mr. Pethinaidu Veluchamy, Chairman, VCT, said that the facillty has been set up at Thirumundivakkam, about 25 km south of Chennai. Apart from the domestic market, it will cater to the markets in Europe, Asia, West Asia, Australia and Africa. The Country's estimated market size of about five million cards will be a fraction of the unit's production capacity. However, according to him, the market is expected to grow two-fold. The debit card market was growing at the rate of 80 per cent and credit card by 30 per cent, he said. VCP will have a capacity to manufacture 300 million cards per year and will also have an in-house card personalization bureau with a capacity of 50 million cards per year and mailing system to offer end-to-end solution to its customers. Mr. Nicholas J. Cooney, President VCT, said that the company would be investing over $8 million at its Chennai facility over the next two years. Mr. Rome Jetté, Vice-President for Smart Card Development, VCT, said that the facility here would be among the largest in South-East Asia. VCT's decision to set up a facility here was to utilize the software capacity available locally. The emergence of smart cards has moved plastic cards from being a commodity to that of a high-tech product, he said. VCP will be a neutral hardware platform provider for Indian software makers who could integrate their software into VCP-manufactured smart cards, he said. Preliminary enquires have been enthusiastic, and VCP is handling a project for the Gujarat Government for manufacturing vehicle ownership cards. Five other States had approached the company for manufacturing driver's licences and vehicle registration cards, he said. |
