HEWLETT-PACKARD, the winner of a Sk1.2 billion tender for the production of new passports for Slovakia, signed a contract with Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák on February 22.
The biometric technology for the passports alone will cost Sk400 million, the SITA news agency wrote. The changes are needed as part of Slovakia's efforts to enter the EU's borderless Schengen area by the end of the year.
"Each passport must be readable by all states that require biometric data," said Kaliňák.
Apart from a digital map of the holder of the passport, the document should also contain the holder's fingerprints.
