MALAYSIAN GOVT MULLS ONLINE SYSTEM FOR PASSPORT RENEWAL

KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 (Bernama) -- The Home Ministry hopes to study a
proposal to introduce an online passport renewal facility to limit the time that
applicants need to spend at Immigration offices.

Deputy Home Minister Lee Chee Leong said the ministry's efforts
through the Im­­mi­gra­tion Department was to enable applicants to avoid
spending two hours or more at immigration office counters.

"The introduction of the online passport renewal system will certainly save
time and money, thus benefit the public, since they will not have to be present
at counters.

"Applications can also be done at any time or place, according to the needs
and capacity of the applicant," he said when answering an additional question by
Senator Datuk Sim Khen Hui during a question and answer session at Senate
here Monday.

Sim had wanted to know if the government would encounter any problems when
implementing the online system.

"The government will save cost, save on manpower and improve efficiency by
focusing on new applications at counters," he said.

Lee added that the implementation of the system would not burden but the
government would have to ensure that the security aspects and the system was
stable and foolproof.

--BERNAMA