HONG KONG, March 16 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- The world famous "Asian Sesames Award" was announced during CARTES in Asia at Hong Kong today. The DBS Live Fresh 3-in-1 Credit card，using the TimeCOS(R)CeWave technology from Beijing Watchdata Systems Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to "Watchdata"), won this award.
TimeCOS(R)CeWave is a dual-interface smart card first launched by Watchdata. It is the first time that TimeCOS(R)CeWave combines Visa payment, Visa payWave and ez-link transport services on a single-chip dual-interface smart card, namely DBS Live Fresh 3-in-1 Credit Card. It brings convenience to people's daily lives by allowing them to hold only one card instead of a transportation card and a bankcard before. Meanwhile, as an EMV chip card, the card can better ensure security.
Sean Xiang Gao, Vice President of Watchdata, said, "Watchdata is devoted to innovation and convergence. This time, the award for TimeCOS(R)CeWave is the recognition of Watchdata's innovation and its converged solutions."
"Sesames Award" comes from CARTES, the famous card exhibition in Paris. Each year, the "Sesames Award" attracts thousands of contestants from all over the world for a fierce competition. It is mainly for innovative smart card products and solutions and is a world widely recognized platform for innovation. This year, "Sesames Award" began to enter Hong Kong at CARTES Asia. Only one of all the contestants will be chosen as the final winner.
Eric Tan, Sales General Manager in Asia-Pacific region said, "The Singapore government began the "Intelligent Nation 2015" plan in 2006. This would bring information and communication technology into all sectors of Singapore, accelerates Singapore's vision of "cashless society". Watchdata's international headquarter is in Singapore, and we are honored and proud to provide more smart card products and solutions, bring to their daily lives more convenience and security."
As a global pilot in the smart card industry, Watchdata has cooperated with the local government of Singapore and the companies there for a long time. For millions of citizens in Singapore, different cards were needed for different payments due to a lack of integrated mechanisms for electronic payment systems in the past, and consumers must carry a variety of electronic payment cards with them. In order to solve this problem and create a real convenient electronic payment environment, in 2006, government offices like Land Transport Authority (LTA) of Singapore introduced a unified set of payment standard CEPAS (Singapore Standard for Contactless e-Purse Application).
After the introduction of this standard, LTA has invited several world-renowned manufacturers to develop smart cards in line with CEPAS standards, however, none of them was able to succeed. Through unrelenting efforts, Watchdata developed a smart card, which successfully passed the test of CEPAS in 2007. From August 2008, Watchdata began to supply CEPAS-compliant cards for Singapore. In addition to the existing functions for buses and trains, it can be used for payments of ERP (electronic road toll), EPS (Electronic Parking fee), shopping, library and other things which are consistent with CEPAS electronic payment systems. So far, Watchdata has provided Singapore with over 10 million CEPAS-compliant cards.
Later in 2009, in order to bring more convenience to cardholders, Singapore transportation operator EZ-Link, DBS Bank of Singapore, and Visa jointly issued a the Live Fresh "3-in-1" credit card, so that cardholders can carry a card which has functions of two cards (transportation card and bank card). The card has used Watchdata's TimeCOS(R)CeWave, the award-winning technology.
In addition to the awarding, Watchdata attended CARTES Asia in Hong Kong Asia--World Expo from March 17 to March 18, with the theme of "Convergence based on transportation". It displayed a variety of converged solutions such as mobile payment SIMpass(TM), contactless online payment solution URpass and ETC total solution Quipass(TM), attracting visitors from around the world.
About Watchdata System Co., Ltd.
Watchdata System Co., Ltd. was founded in 1994 and headquartered in Beijing with more than 1,399 employees to date. At present, Watchdata already has 11 overseas subsidiaries in Singapore, the United States, Mexico, France, India, Italy, Pakistan. Its full range of products and solutions has been widely applied in over 50 countries and regions, among which Singapore is the international headquarter and contributes the most profits of all overseas markets. In 2009, Watchdata sales revenue reached over 1 billion RMB（146.5 Million USD）, with an overseas revenue of 360 Million RMB (52.74 Million USD).
As the world's leading data security solution provider, Watchdata has focused on the research and development of data security and authentication technologies, secure chip operating system, providing smart cards, USB keys, card reader, platforms, key systems and other security products, as well as cross-sector converged products and solutions for telecom, transportation, finance, government and enterprises.
