MALAYSIAN STATE LAUNCHES GOLD DINAR, DIRHAM END OF NEXT MONTH

IPOH (Malaysia), Jan 26 (Bernama) -- The Perak state government will launch
the gold dinar and dirham currency at the end of next month aimed at
diversifying the types of savings for the people.

Chairman of the State Committee on Education, Higher Education, ICT, Human
Resources, Science and Technology Mohamad Zahir Khalid said Perak, a northern
state in Peninsular Malaysia, was cooperating with the Kuwait Finance House
(KFH) to introduce the gold dinar and dirham because it had vast expericence in
handling the currency.

"What is certain is that the currency introduced by Perak is vastly
different from the currency introduced by Kelantan (an east coast state in
Peninsular Malaysia) earlier. The difference will be explained by the Chief
Minister later," he told reporters after chairing the joint meeting with the top
management of KFH, here Tuesday.

The dinar and dirham will be produced by Goldnet International Sdn Bhd,
which is a subsidiary of the Perak State Economic Development Corporation in
collaboration with KFH (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd.

-- BERNAMA