Malaysia Will Manage Agriculture Subsidies Using Smart Card Technology
Malaysia will use its smart card technology to better manage and facilitate the dissemination of subsidies to agriculture workers, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Monday.
“Malaysia for a few years now has been working on ICT-based solutions to solve certain problems and bottlenecks that we face along the agriculture supply chain,” he said when opening the 16th WCIT (World Congress on Information Technology) here.
He said one such solution is technology that makes available real time market information to farmers, fishermen and smallholders through the internet.
It is just one of the ways that Malaysia has used ICT to provide solutions to its particular problem in the area of agriculture and food production, he added.
Malaysia will continue to take all the necessary steps including investing further in ICT infrastructure and services in order to raise its competitiveness and put the country on the fast track toward the information age, he said.
Pointing out that fast and easy access to internet is no longer a luxury, Abdullah said Malaysia will soon launch its broadband initiative which will reach 50 percent of the households by 2010, up from 15.5 percent last year.
He also said that soon Malaysia will launch a comprehensive e-payment facility involving over 100 government agencies.
