Turkish company sets up Belfast operation

An Istanbul-based smart card technology company, is setting up a development centre in West Belfast as a springboard for expansion into the European Union and US markets.

The company expects to employ 17 people, mostly graduate software and electronics engineers in Belfast over the next three years.

Leslie Ross, Managing Director of Invest Northern Ireland’s Business International, said Protekila, an R&D-led company specialising in software and hardware equipment for smart cards used for secure payments in electronic banking, telephone, e-commerce transactions and to ensure secure data transmission and mobile applications like GPRS, has recently started operations at Invest NI’s Whiterock Business Unit

Invest NI is supporting this investment by providing accommodation at Whiterock, a purpose-built development by Invest NI to attract ICT investors.

Mr Ross said: “Protekila is an innovation-led company which will bring important expertise to Northern Ireland in smart cards, a sector which is growing strongly in Europe as an ever increasing number of organisations and businesses apply this technology. It will further enhance our existing software sector and provide opportunities in West Belfast, a New Targeting Social Needs Area. This investment confirms the potential in this area and reinforces the good work of the West Belfast Taskforce.

Protekila’s Executive Manager, Ozer Koseoglu, said: “We were impressed by the professionalism of the Invest NI team and the efforts they made to secure this investment. We looked at a number of other locations, including the Republic of Ireland, but opted for Belfast because we believe it offers a supply of skilled software and electronics engineers.”

A new smart card, SAM, and magnetic card operating module with advanced security measures has been developed by the company for new smart card phones with Alcatel and Teletas.

A new generation smart card designed for Alcatel gained the company Turkey’s top technology award in 1999.

Established in 1991, the company also developed a mobile smart card terminal using a fingerprint recognition system that the Turkish government is using for ID cards.

(SP)