IRIS Corp Bhd expects to start its pilot project on the implementation of the electronic passport (e-Passport) system in Myanmar next month.

Iris managing director Tan Say Jim said the company had received the appointment from the E-National Task Force of the Union of Myanmar on July 15.

“Myanmar will be the second country after Malaysia to use the e-Passport which the Malaysian Immigration Department implemented in March 1998,’’ Tan said at a media briefing on the company’s operations in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

He said the pilot project would involve the implementation of the complete system from front-end capture systems for passport personalisation to automatic gates for faster immigration processing at Myanmar’s international airport.

Iris will also work on the local integration of the system which includes the transfer of technology to the relevant agencies involved in the pilot project.

Besides aiming at the Asean smart card market, Iris is also targeting to promote the smart card applications to users in the Middle East.

Iris’ 49.5%-owned associated company Iris Technologies (M) Sdn Bhd is involved in the manufacture of smart cards for identification and passport uses.

The company is aiming for a listing on the KLSE Mesdaq market with a public issue of 211.33 million shares of 15 sen each at an offer price of 30 sen.

About 4 million shares are reserved for public subscription, 3 million shares for the employees of the group and 204.33 million shares under private placement.

Its initial public offering (IPO) of 4 million shares made available to the public was oversubscribed by 8.97 times.

Asked whether Iris was considering introducing more new high technologies into the market, Tan said: “Although we want to expand our technology base, we also want to sell the technologies and not just keep on developing new ones.’’