CARTES, a 24-year Paris staple, will be expanding its reach next year with the launch of its first CARTES in Asia edition as part of the AsiaWorld-Expo March 16-18 in Hong Kong. It will feature three days of conferences and a hundred exhibitors and is expected to attract more than 2,500 visitors.
“We have been witnessing the increasing interest, especially for payment technologies, coming from this region at CARTES Paris during the last few years,” said Michael Weatherseed, CARTES events director. “With Hong Kong being a major international financial center, hosting 69 of the World’s Top 100 banks, it is the right place for a pan-APAC smart technology event. We are expecting all major industry players from the banking, telecommunications, e-government and transit markets.”
With the deployment of the EMV standard and governments promoting smart card and high-technology adoption, the Asia-Pacific smart cards and identification technology adoption is growing faster than in any other region in the world. The major trend today is the development of contactless payment, which is expected to grow rapidly in the Asia-Pacific region through 2010 and beyond.
“CARTES in Asia will be the perfect opportunity for regional players to get an update on all successful deployments and local success stories,” commented Slobodan Petrovic, deputy director of CARTES in Asia. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/contactlessnews-4.gif)
