Kuala Lumpur:  All newborn children from Jan 1 next year will be issued with both birth certificates and MyKads upon registration with National Registration Department (NRD).

NRD Director-general Datuk Azizan Ayob said the department was finalizing the details of implementation, believed it will include provisions enabling the registration of a child inoculation and schooling details.

On Friday, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced in his budget 2003 speech that in tandem with the Government intention to widen the use of information and communications technology, all new born children would be provided with MyKads, a life long identification document and a personal database.

Dr Mahathir, who is also Finance Minister,said this would reduce the hassle of filling up forms when dealing with government agencies and the private sector.Asked to comment on the Dr. Mahathir announcement that all Malaysians would posses MyKads by 2005, Azizan said between January last year and now, 2.3 million MyKads had been issued nationwide.

The department expects the number grow to 3.3 million by the end of the year. I will hold meetings with head of units to discuss how best the target of 2005 can be achived. We will have to re-deploy the existing staff to meet the rush, he said. Dr Mahathir, in his Budget speech, said the NRD would be provided with sufficient staff and equipment as well as mobile units to meet the registration needs in rural areas.

Dr Mahathir said, there was no reason for anyone not to convert their identity cards to MyKad by the end 2005.Azizan appealed to all IC holders to apply for their Mykads instead of waiting till the last minute to do so. Malaysia is the first country to introduce MyKad, a multi-purpose smart card based on chip technology and biometric with high security features. MyKad contains information of the holder,including birth certificate details and information for dealing with government agencies. Additional applications such as ATM, MEPS cash and Touch Go will also be incorporated. The department is looking into several new applications to be incorporated into MyKad.

Starting next month, Mykad will be embedded with a 64 kb chip, allowing holders access to a variety of services from banking to e-commerce and stock trading.

As for the Government proposal to include more information such marital status and voting constituency, Azizan said the department would have to study the proposal.