Brazil starts to issue new ID cards

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Justice Minister Luiz Paulo Barreto on Thursday joined their countrymen to apply for a new chip-based identity card.

It is a magnetic card with digital printing and an electronic chip that stores information about the card-holder's name, gender, date of birth, photograph, affiliation, place of birth, signature, fingerprint, place and date of issuance and expiration.

The new ID card, using state-of-the-art technology, is designed to avoid repeated indentity registeration in different states, as well as confusions caused by different people with the same name.

Source: Xinhua
The process of replacing all old ID cards with the new ones is expected to take more than a decade in Brazil, with two million Brazilians getting their new ID cards in the next year free of charge.

The cost of the replacement is estimated at 55 million U.S. dollars in 2011, which will be covered by the Justice Ministry. 

Source: Xinhua