ISELIN, N.J., Oct. 28, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Track Innovations Ltd, (OTI) (Nasdaq:OTIV), a global leader in contactless microprocessor-based smart card solutions, for homeland security, payments, petroleum payments and other applications, today announced that its Chinese partner HuaDa-ZhiBao Electronic Systems Ltd received a notice of award for the supply of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) units for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) electronic passport program, geared towards China's MFA passport holders. The MFA issues passports to diplomats and entry visas to China. The new system will be installed in Chinese embassies around the world and border crossing points in China. The initial phase is to supply 300 units.

China's MFA electronic passport is based on the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and ISO 14443 testing procedures. The award comes after successful rigorous testing for product performance including security, durability, communications, personalization and more.

HuaDa-ZhiBao is OTI's Chinese local partner for the MFA program and the parties have reached an overall profit sharing agreement. In this tender, OTI is responsible for supplying the contactless readers and in addition will receive part of the profits from the overall program deliverables.

Oded Bashan, Chairman & CEO of OTI, said: "We are honored to be a part of the Chinese MFA electronic passport program. The cooperation with Da-Zhi Bao has proven to be successful, professional and together positions us to provide best-in-class ID solutions to the Chinese government."

Mr. Bashan continued: "As we have indicated, in our view, the Chinese opportunity is comprised of a series of projects and initiatives which are governed by different governmental regulations and agencies. Each one of these initiatives is large, complex, sophisticated and involves the integration of multiple sub systems, and thus takes long time. In recent years OTI has been working with strong local partners in order to be able to establish local products which support the Chinese opportunity."

About OTI

Established in 1990, OTI (Nasdaq:OTIV) designs, develops and markets secure contactless microprocessor-based smart card technology to address the needs of a wide variety of markets. Applications developed by OTI include product solutions for petroleum payment systems, homeland security solutions, electronic passports and IDs, payments, mass transit ticketing, parking and loyalty programs. OTI has a global network of regional offices to market and support its products. The company was awarded the Frost & Sullivan 2005 and 2006 Company of the Year Award in the field of smart cards. For more information on OTI, visit www.otiglobal.com.

The On Track Innovations Ltd.