China's resident identification card
program is expected to be a major driver behind its soaring use of
electronic tags over the next several years, a market research firm
has said.
The number of radio-frequency ID tags bought by the
Chinese is expected to reach 2.9 billion by 2009 from more than a
100 million last year, In-Stat said. A key use will be in the
nation's second-generation Resident ID Card program.
"With a
population of over 1.3 billion, the issuance of RFID-tag-inlaid
Resident ID cards by the Ministry of Public Security is one of the
biggest RFID projects in the world," In-Stat analyst Anty Zheng said
in a statement. "More than 1 billion ID Cards will be issued before
the end of 2008."
The
Chinese government has made a major push in the use of RFID
technology, targeting government, transportation and manufacturing.
The retail industry, however, is expected to eventually become the
biggest user of RFID tags.
Copyright (c) 2006 CMP Media LLC
