Gemplus joins forces with Plastkart for smart card production in Turkey

Industrial strategic partnership to respond to Turkish market needs

Luxembourg, 6 November 2003 -- Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP), the world's leading provider of smart card based solutions, and Plastkart, only fully Turkish-owned manufacturer of smart cards, today announced the commencement of a strategic partnership for the local production of smart cards. The agreement aims to deliver Gemplus' card technology to the Turkish market via Plastkart's flexible local production facilities.

Following an earlier successful collaboration in the production of memory PhoneCards, which resulted in the achievement of the highly demanding TU4 certification, both companies are pleased to intensify their relationship. Gemplus will work closely with Plastkart to provide the necessary technological support to enable Plastkart to produce smart cards for use in financial and governmental applications. Plastkart will manufacture in its 6000 square meter high tech factory in Silivri Istanbul.

With pressure to comply with the new EMV standard, which specifies that all magnetic stripe banking cards need to be replaced by smart card-enabled cards, rapidly gathering momentum, the Turkish market presents a huge potential for Plastkart. Banking cards have become powerful marketing tools that can run several secure applications, such as loyalty schemes, e-purse and e-banking among others. Today, about 40 million payment cards are in circulation on the Turkish market. As the widespread use of information technology has changed the way governments communicate with their citizens, smart cards have also emerged as the solution of choice for public organisations to identify and authenticate individuals. Throughout a nation, state or city, governments can rely on smart ID solutions to identify citizens and their rights in order to deliver services enabling cost, time and resource savings. With 70 million inhabitants, the Turkish market presents huge opportunities for Plastkart which, with the aid of Gemplus' worldwide field proven technologies, is now able to offer each Turkish card issuer a tailor-made solution.

"We are very pleased to be working with Gemplus and to benefit from their worldwide experience and technological expertise. This agreement will enable us to respond better to our clients' specific regional needs and offer them enhanced services," said Ridvan Çelikel, Vice President at Plastkart. "We choose Gemplus not only for their leadership but also for their ability to deliver quality products complemented with flexibility, important values which are part of Plastkart's company philosophy as well".

"Gemplus is very enthusiastic about this new partnership, which will enable us to deliver flexible solutions to the promising banking, retail and government business sector in Turkey, thanks to PlastKart's highly secure facility," commented Alain Faburel, Sales & Marketing Director Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa at Gemplus. Mr Faburel adds: "This partnership will strengthen Gemplus' presence in Turkey and reinforce the role of Plastkart in the international smart card landscape."

About Gemplus

Gemplus International S.A.(Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP) is the world's leading player in the smart card industry in both revenue and total shipments (source 2002: Gartner-Dataquest, Frost & Sullivan, Datamonitor). It has the largest R&D team, unrivalled experience, and an outstanding track record of technological innovation. Gemplus helps its clients offer an exceptional range of portable, personalised solutions that bring security and convenience to people's lives. These include Mobile Telecommunications, Public Telephony, Banking, Retail, Transport, Identity, WLAN, Pay-TV, e-government, access control, and a wealth of other applications. Gemplus' revenue in 2002 was 787 million Euros. www.gemplus.com

About Plastkart

Since 2000, Plastikkart Akilli Kart Iletisim Sistemleri Tic. Ve A.S. (PLASTKART) is the biggest smart card supplier in Turkey. The company's production capacity exceeds 45 million smart cards and is certified by BVQI, TSE and TUVIT TU4. Plastkart is the sole Turkish card supplier of Turk Telekom delivering 30 Million telephone cards per year to the operator. Paid capital is 8 Million Euro and 100% Turkish capitalized. The largest shareholder is Anel Group, new owner of Alcatel Factory and contractor of Alcatel operations in Turkey.

Contact details

For more information, please contact:

Steve Lacourt
Gemplus Regional PR Manager
Tel - +32 (0) 2 711 48 20
Mob - +32 (0) 495 29 20 26
steve.lacourt@gemplus.com

Ali YILDIZ
Plastkart Managing Director
Tel - +90 212 7360814
Mob - +90 533 3669627
yildiza@plastikkart.com.tr

Vanessa Clarke
Gemplus Account Director,
Edelman PR
Tel - +44 (0)20 7344 1349
Mob - +44 (0)7730 989698
vanessa.clarke@edelman.com

©2003 Gemplus. All rights reserved. Gemplus and the Gemplus logo are trademarks and service marks of Gemplus and are registered in certain countries. All other trademarks and service marks, whether registered or not in specific countries, are the property of their respective owners.

Some of the statements contained in this release constitute forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activities, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Actual events or results may differ materially. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those estimated by the forward-looking statements contained in this release include, but are not limited to: trends in wireless communication and mobile commerce markets; our ability to develop new technology, and the effects of competing technologies developed and expected intense competition generally in our main markets; profitability of our expansion strategy; challenges to or loss of our intellectual property rights; our ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships in our major businesses; our ability to develop and take advantage of new software and services; and the effect of future acquisitions and investments on our share price. Moreover, neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this release speak only as of this release. We are under no duty to update any of the forward-looking statements after this date to conform such statements to actual results or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated results.