BURLINGTON, ON, April 29 /CNW/ - IPICO Inc. (TSX-V: RFD.V) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a definitive agreement with CATS LUHAI (Beijing) Investment Co., Ltd. (CATS LUHAI) to form a joint venture company in the People's Republic of China for the purpose of the implementation and management of an advanced integrated nation-wide electronic (RFID) motor vehicle identification and registration, route identification and toll collection program throughout China.
CATS LUHAI is a subsidiary of the China Academy of Transportation Sciences (CATS), an agency of the Chinese national Ministry of Transport with general responsibility for transportation planning, transportation finance, traffic information, traffic and security, environmental protection, transportation standards and measurement, transportation of new technologies, new materials development and application of modern scientific research in the fields of logistics.
This joint venture agreement flows from the final selection by CATS of IPICO's UHF RFID Electronic Vehicle Identification (EVI) technology following more than three years of extensive technical evaluation and pilot testing by CATS of the products of IPICO and other competitors. China has an extensive network of over 63,000 kilometers of national, provincial and local highways, most of which are already subject to an older patchwork of manual toll collection concessions. There are at present over 56 million motor vehicles in China. The implementation of IPICO's automated RFID tolling solution over this vast number of motor vehicles and network of roadways is not only expected to achieve very significant cost and revenue efficiencies, it is hoped that the implementation of advanced vehicle identification and routing solutions will significantly reduce the extremely high levels of traffic congestion and resulting pollution experienced in many densely populated areas of the country.
IPICO expects that the rollout of the joint venture solutions will commence this quarter and will proceed province by province throughout China over the next four to five years.
Gord Westwater, President and CEO of IPICO, noted that "It has been a very long and interesting road working with CATS and forging the necessary relationships with the many remarkable individuals involved in this project. We could not be more pleased that CATS has finally validated and agreed to adopt IPICO's technology as its own long term solution to that country's expansive motor vehicle RFID requirements. We fully expect that this relationship will accelerate and underpin IPICO's global EVI success in this important RFID sector for many years to come."
ABOUT IPICO Inc.: IPICO Inc. is an RFID solution supplier with operations in Canada, USA, South Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia. IPICO produces smart labels and tags based on the IP-X communication protocol. IPICO's low interference readers are designed to meet regulatory requirements in many major markets, and allow for multi-reader rollout in close proximity. IPICO's low cost RFID products excel at long read range, fast multi-read anti-collision and high thru-beam read-speeds of dynamic tag populations. These products are used to optimize the management of items, people, animals and processes within the logistic supply chain and other value chains. For further information, go to www.ipico.com.
This news release contains certain forward-looking statements pertaining to future anticipated projected plans, performance and developments, as well as other statements relating to future operations and results, including, without limitation, statements as to sales forecasts and required minimum future revenues. Any statements in this news release that are not statements of historical fact may be considered to be forward-looking statements. Written words such as "may", "will", "expect", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "intends", "goal", "objective", "seek", "attempt", "suggest" or variations of these or similar words, identify forward-looking statements. These statements by their nature are estimates of future results only. Actual results could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements and are based on current expectations that involve substantial risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to the failure to meet market growth, order volume, delivery commitment or minimum revenue expectations, political intervention, and those other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in IPICO's periodic reports filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).
THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY
OR THE ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.
ContactsGordon Westwater President & CEO
IPICO Inc.
Tel: (905) 631-6310
Email: gordon.westwater@ipico.com Jiann Hsieh
Vice President
IPICO North Asia
Tel. +86-13585856108
Email: jiann.hsieh@ipico.com
