THE country’s new electronic passport will be issued starting on this Thursday.

This is according to the confirmation received from the office of the Director of Immigration Department under the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, Labour and Immigration (MCILI), yesterday.

The director, Mr Mason Henry Fugui, told this paper that the official proposed date for issuing of the passport is on March 9.

He said this has come after the final work require to do on the system is currently going well and it eyes to complete prior to the launching date this week.

Mr Fugui stated that on Thursday last week two staffs from Irish Company from Malaysia arrived purposely to work on the establishment of the system for the e-passport.

“As I had said, the work is going really well with the support from the local staffs as we expects the work to complete before Thursday this week,” he said.

On the same note, the director pointed out that for those who wish to pursue this new passport, “it is something you need to do by your own”.

He said it is not like what has happened with the old type of passport where anybody can pursue the passport on behalf of somebody.

“For this e-passport, it different, means it required your name, finger-print and signature, where you have to go down to the Immigration office before accessing all these require criteria.

“This is very important and people need to take note of it,” Mr Fugui said.

It was reported in Island Sun last month that the new system is being done for safety and security reasons.

Mr Fugui said the current passport is easy to be forged, and there are incidents already encountered by the immigration department.

He also adds that the e-passport system is also convenient than the existing passport.