Kyrgyzstan will start issuing biometric passports at the end of December 2020. The Chairman of the State Registration Service, Akyn Mambetaliev, told today at a briefing.

According to him, work is underway to bring protective elements and design in line. Samples will be sent by November. Personification will begin and citizens will be issued new passports by the end of the year.

«Work is underway with the Ministries of Internal and Foreign Affairs to remove visa restrictions, agreements have been signed. Work is underway with the U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan to eliminate the shortcomings,» Akyn Mambetaliev said.

A German company Mühlbauer ID Services GmbH with a total application cost of 655,645,250 soms became the winner in the tender for the purchase of forms of passports of citizens of Kyrgyzstan of a new generation — internal, diplomatic and official.

Issue of electronic regular passports in the republic was supposed to begin in 2019. In 2018, a tender was announced for the purchase of electronic passport forms of a new sample for 1.2 billion soms. A Lithuanian company Garsu Pasaulis, which offered 940,150,000 soms, was announced a winner. But the German Mühlbauer ID Services company went to court. The results of the tender were canceled.