Malaysia plans official email accounts for adults

Each Malaysian adult may soon have his or her official email account as a means for "direct and secure" communication with the government. The initiative will allow Malaysians 18 years old and above to receive statements, bills and notices from the government, The Star newspaper reported Tuesday. According to Tricubes Bhd chief executive officer Khairun Zainal Mokhtar, the initiative would allow direct and secure communication between the public and the government. Tricubes Bhd is the company developing the 1Malaysia Email project in collaboration with Microsoft. Khairun said Tricubes Bhd will also head the development of a web portal which would include social networking services, as well as online bill checking and payments. "Currently, the company is still running stress test for the portal. Hopefully, we can get it ready by July this year," he said at the fifth progress update of the Economic Transformation Programme. — TJD, GMA News