PETALING JAYA, Malaysia -- Malaysia's National Registration Department (NRD) is processing an average of 23,000 applications a day for the MyKad, the new chip-based card that can be used as an ATM card, driver's license and passport among other applications, compared to 9,000 a day in 2002.
NRD director-general Datuk Azizan Ayob said the number has exceeded the department's expectations of 15,000 applications a day, according to a report in The Star.
"The total number of MyKad applications from January to the middle of (April) is 1,496,276," he said at the NRD headquarters. A total of 4,328,329 MyKad cards has been issued since 1998.
Azizan said that at this rate, up to 15 million Malaysians were expected to have the MyKad by 2005. "The overwhelming public response could be because the first card is free, and because people trust the card's security compared to the old identity card," he told The Star.
He said the department intends to hire up to 93 temporary employees within the next couple of months to help process applications more quickly.
The present waiting time for collection of a MyKad is two weeks, Azizan said, but the department hoped to reduce that to its target of one week.
Up to 10,000 MyKid cards -- a children's version of the MyKad -- have been issued since the card was launched earlier this year, according to The Star.
