The Morpho-Filmetrics-Frey Consortium, Unisys Public Sector Services Corp. and PNJ Partnership Consortium have attended the pre-bid conference for the public-private partnership (PPP) project that will upgrade the Philippine’s civil registry services.

Morpho-Filmetrics-Frey Consortium is made up Morpho (Safran), Filmetrics Corp. and Frey-Fil Corp, while PNJ Partnership Consortium is composed of Japan's NTT DATA Corp., Japan's Pointwest Technologies Corp., and local companies Filinvest Land, Inc., Magellan Capital Holdings Corp. and Fleetwood Holdings, Inc.

The National Economic and Development Authority Board approved the project on July 15. According to Dorcas Ann O. Ho of the PPP Center’s Project Development Service, interested groups will have to submit their bids in May. The award will take place before President Benigno S. C. Aquino III steps down from office on June 30.

The preferred bidder will have to finance, design, develop, operate, and maintain the CRS-ITP2, which is a successor project to CRS-ITP implemented in 2000.

The P1.59-billion (US$33.6 million) project will involve the computerization of the civil registry operations of the Philippine statistics authority (PSA) and is designed to collect, access, store, maintain and manage civil registry documents and the specimen signatures of all city and municipal registrars using imaging technology.

The project will also include production of vital statistics and makes the civil registry services available nationwide through the CRS outlets and other authorized partners.