BEIJING, China — Major financial institutions and mobile carriers in the Middle Kingdom are getting ready for the 29th Olympic Games in China. The games will be held from Aug. 8-24.
The Bank of China and the China Everbright Bank are offering their customers special Visa Olympic-edition credit cards. China Mobile is marketing a gift box containing six prepaid telephone cards, which is the fourth set of commemorative cards for 2008 Beijing Olympic Games launched by China Mobile. The Olympic smart cards are supplied by Giesecke & Devrient (G&D), a leading provider of smart card solutions.
The Bank of China tasked G&D with producing its VISA Olympic credit card as early as 2005. Over 800,000 cards have been supplied so far. The cards' primary design element is the official logo of the Beijing Olympic Games, and this series features the blue, black, red, yellow and green of the Olympic rings. A special printing technique makes it possible to feel selected patterns and images on the surface of the card. In addition to the usual range of credit card services, the Bank of China's Olympic cards offer a dual currency function, a revolving credit option, access to the Bank of China's special customer network and other services.
The China Everbright Bank is issuing its VISA Olympic credit card in a vertical design displaying the five Fuwa mascots. G&D China has already supplied the bank with 200,000 cards, which have been issued to the bank's customers starting in August 2007.
China Mobile, the world's largest mobile network operator, has brought out a gift box containing six prepaid telephone cards in a circular arrangement to mark the 2008 Olympic Games. They are already in demand as collectors' items. China Mobile is an official Olympic partner and will provide the communication technology, the mobile network and numerous mobile services for the Olympic Games. The cards in the gift box are available with a choice of different nominal values. G&D China won the tender for the design of the China Mobile Olympic prepaid cards in the summer of 2007, thus becoming the prime supplier of the gift box.
"Our own local design center succeeded in winning the contracts for the prestigious, artistically designed special Olympic editions. The ideas presented were very much to the liking of our Chinese customers," said Dr. Roland Savoy, managing director of G&D China.
As early as 1994 G&D set up a production plant for banking cards in the province of Hubei and in 1997, another production plant for telephone cards in the province of Jiangxi. The first SIM card ever to be commercially produced in China originated from G&D's Jiangxi plant. Both plants supply state of the art card products for the Chinese and international markets which are used for telecommunications, payment transactions and identity documents.
