Work on the VND32 billion (US$2.1 million) facility in the Saigon Hi-Tech Park was expected to start in March and be completed in December, Nguyen Trong Khang, a senior company executive said.

It would work on solutions using chip cards, including payment cards meeting EMV standards for use in the banking sector, simcards for cell-phones, access control systems, and electronic recognition.

EMV is a standard initiated for interoperation of chip cards and IC capable point-of-sale terminals for authenticating credit and debit card payments.

MK Group has a manufacturing plant in the Quang Minh Industrial Park in the northern Vinh Phuc Province, which churns out 50 million magnetic cards and 30 million chip cards.

Besides local distribution, these cards are also shipped to the US, Singapore, and Indonesia.

The company supplies simcards and phone cards to major telecom companies in Vietnam like S-Fone, Mobifone, and Vinaphone.

Established in 1999, MK Group, the first to offer plastic card technology in Vietnam, has two affiliate companies – MK Technology Joint Stock Co. that provides solutions and applications for cards, and MKK SmartCard Joint Venture Co. that produces plastic, magnetic, and smart cards as well as simcards.

                                                                                    (Source: VnEconomy)