Other nations impressed with our card By Rupa Damodaran

MYKAD, the government Multi purpose Card, is being more seriously studied by many developed countries, including the United States, ion the aftermath of the Sept 11 terrorists attacks.

Unisys Corporation general Manager of public sector (Asia division) John S. Kendall said other countries were impressed with Malaysia’s electronic-government initiative which has shown fruition in all levels of implementation.

“The Co-operation between departments and agencies has put Malaysia ahead,” he said in Kuala Lumpur recently.

Kendall said very few countries had succeeded like Malaysia in putting forward an integrated format for its citizens.

MyKad is being recognized world wide as the Malaysian multipurpose citizen smartcard, the world’s first multi-application card.

There are 12 fully operational service centres and so far, one million cards have been issued.

Unisys(Malaysia) Sdn Bhd director of Unisys Information Services Lalit Gupta said the company was now working with the Multimedia Development Corporation to promote local Malaysian companies and export the Malaysian Technology using Unisys’s global presence.

“We’re now taking the next step by taking the Malaysian Technology and experience to other countries overseas –within Asean as well as the rest of the world,” he said.

“Specific initiatives are already underway in Bahrain and the Philippines with explanatory discussions ongoing in Sri Lanka, Australia and Canada.

He lauded the Government’s commitment and its investments which put it ahead of others who had also been interested in similar services but were unable to go ahead.

Unisys had partnered with four local Malaysian companies to develop the large-scale smart card.

Gupta said a lot of interest was shown when the National Registration Department director-general Datuk Azizan Ayob spoke on the smartcard during a conference in the US in February.

“The positive priviledges of having a national identification card has helped to change the mindset.”

Unisys (Malaysia) public sector services sales director Noraishah Omar said the company was also in the early stages of discussions with State Goverments, starting with Selangor, on the application of IT initiatives.

The company is also expected to be involved in the Government’s second wave of the project , which involves integrating across flagships. Its key clients here are most-ly from the public sector and the financial sector.

From the public sector , its clients include the National Registration Department, Accountant-General Department, Social Security Organisation, National Co-operative Organisation (Angkasa).