Iris Corp said it has signed an agreement with France's Smart Packaging Solutions, which would allow the exchange of technologies and resources.

"Specifically, it was also agreed that ICB (Iris) would promote SPS's technologies in the Asian and American continents and in return SPS would promote ICB's technologies in the European continent," Iris said yesterday.

It did not provide financial details of the deal.

Iris said SPS has been awarded the Morocco electronic identity card (E-id) project, which involves the supply of up to 20 million cards over a four-year period.

Module supplier

Under the terms of the agreement, Iris would be the preferred module supplier for this project and also the preferred e-passport inlay manufacturer for SPS, it said.

The agreement also covers the exclusive supply of transfer moulding contactless card inlay to SPS for their special markets.

Iris, which is listed on Malaysia's Mesdaq bourse, manufactures electronic smart cards for Malaysian passports and identity cards.

It announced in February that it had won an RM82 million contract to supply Turkey with components for electronic passports.

It is also supplying components for electronic passport and smart card readers to Thailand under a RM112 million deal.

SPS provides manufacturing technology and expertise to manufacture micropackaging and microelectronic systems, including contact and contactless smart cards and devices dedicated to identity and security markets using ID cards and passports.