E-government in Malaysia: Its implementation so far and citizen’s adoption strategies

Generally, new technologies are forcing governments to be particularly considerate to time. In order to make right decision and avoid falling behind, governments must identify and resolve the different issues that have arisen from the transaction period during which traditional and e-government co-exist. Government should guide and control the transformation of government into e-government rather than just focusing on introduction of ICTs. Meanwhile, the use of ICT to strengthen the involvement of citizens and businesses in public decision must be progress at the same time.
The Electronic Government initiative in Malaysia was launched to lead the country into the Information Age. It has improved both how the government operates internally as well as how it delivers services to the people of Malaysia. It seeks to improve the convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions with citizens and businesses; simultaneously, it will improve information flows and processes within government to improve the speed and quality of policy development, coordination and enforcement.The vision of Electronic Government is avision for government, businesses and citizenry working together for the benefit of Malaysia and all of its citizens. The vision focuses on effectively and efficiently delivering services from the government tothe people of Malaysia, enabling the government to become more responsive to the needs of its citizens.

The 7 pilot projects of the ElectronicGovernment Flagship Application are as follows:

1. Project Monitoring System (SPP II)

2. Human Resource ManagementInformation System (HRMIS)

3. Generic Office Environment (GOE)

4. Electronic Procurement (EP)

5. Electronic Services (E-Services)

6. Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX)

7. E-Syariah

The my Government Portal (www.gov.my)acts as the one-stop source of Malaysian government information and services for the citizens.

The recent survey about the e-goverment adoption in Malaysia, which was done by the market information group TNS, indicated that the e-goverment use is growing but a slow pace.

The malaysians are also concerned about the security of doing transactions over the Internet and this resulted in low usage of e-goverment services.

As far as the age group is concerned, the younger Malaysian who are under 34, are the primary users of e-goverment services. in the survey also state that households with high income and higher levels of education actively use the e-goverment services.

E-goverment merging field, which is rapidly gaining attention and importance. Citizens expect and demand governmental services with a high degree of quality, quantity, and availability in a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week, and year-round fashion.

Governments are developing information systems and electronic services that have the capacity to meet these emerging service needs and demands of citizens and other clients. Success in delivering electronic services depends upon the capability and self-confidence of citizens in performing e-transactions, as well as their trust and confidence in the protection of their personal data within an open and accountable government.

The ease of use, compatibility, and trustworthiness are significant predictors of citizens's tention to use e-Services and that perceived reactive advantage, perceived image, perceived compatibility, perceived usefulness, and relative advantage are significant elements of e-goverment adoption.

Credit Card Debt : causes and prevention

Credit Card Debt is the unpaid balance on the credit card. This is not the minimum amount due, but is the total balance due on a respective line of credit. When the consumers has been late on a payment or does not pay the bank on time for that the money he or she has spent. Then, the bank will charge a late payment penalty and increases via interest on the amount of debt the consumer has.

Nowadays, credit card debts are major cause of bankruptcies each year. It is because many people have never realized of its consequences from financial and non financial perspectives when get a new credit card or not enough safety net when there is an incident happen.

The following is the main reason of the credit card debt:

POOR MONEY MANAGEMENT
A monthly spending plan is essential. But they does not know where their money is going, do not know what is the percentage of their income have they saved each and every month. Thus, it has lead to a rise in debts by using credit cards. Then, they cannot set aside money for saving and emergency needs.

GAMBLING
Today, gambling is fun and entertaining but it will be hard to stop when it becomes addictive. Thus, it will surely lead to a financial disaster if borrowing money through credit card for gambling.

UNEMPLOYMENT
People are forced to use credit card for expenses purposes to maintain current lifestyle. When the main breadwinner of the household has loss his job and could not find a new job during short periods. This may lead to a rise in debt when expenses are not cut down in line with the reduction in income.

EXCESSIVE MEDICAL EXPENSES
Credit card will probably become one of the sources of funds to pay off the medical expenses if health insurance is not adequate to cover the medical bills if one of your family members suffers serious illness.

The following is the ways to prevent credit card debt:

BUDGET
List all monthly bills and necessities and make sure that you can meet all the basic necessities that you spent and stay within your budget guidelines. this will prevent from overspending and fall under deeper debt load.

SELF CONTROL AND DISCIPLINE
One of the best practices is to have a direct set up so that able to pay back the full amount each month and use in emergencies. Thus, self control and discipline to keep these cards in wallet and would not overspend. The

CAUTION ABOUT AGREEMENT
make sure you have read word by word in all the agreements before u signed and make a payment. Sometimes, there could be hidden some fees that we does not need to pay.

Review a local e-commerce site

Lelong Malaysia is a website that provides easy malaysian auction and online shopping which includes trading of computers, cars, houses, electronics, sports, antique, software and handphone. The website also offers online payment transaction.

The website is unique because the auctioned items are rare and awesome such as these weird stuff and spy camera detector pen, which allows users to detect any spy devices around on a certain location.
The website also auctions popular products from other website including MaxAudio Online, which is a premier Car Audio, Video, Accessories & Performance Online Store.
Lelong offers each merchant member a page where they can sell their products such as Shinoz's Online Store which is powered by Lelong.
The Lelong Forum allows members to interact with each other and ask questions. Other members could provide a answers and recommendations about issues related to Lelong and transportation of bought materials which have problems with the courier service.
Members at Webmaster Malaysia Forum even featured the lelong's service. The free auction, free membership, free bidding, free banner advertisement and free trading. Sylok.com's Forum also featured Lelong's Bank Auctioning and Photomalaysia Community.
As more and more small and medium business "go online" using e-commerce website such as lelong. People have provided guides such as Lelong Malaysia Auction Online Guide that are listed on lelongmalaysia.com.
The popularity of the site caused the growth of other websites such as Malaysia Auction Lelong Property (real estate), Cari Rumah Sewa, Malaysia Auction Online and Iklan Malaysia.

mobile payment system in malaysia its potentials and consumers adoption strategies

A mobile payment or m-payment may be defined, for our purposes, as any payment where a mobile device is used to initiate, authorize and confirm an exchange of financial value in return for goods and services. Mobile devices may include mobile phones, PDAs, wireless tablets and any other device that connect to mobile telecommunication network and make it possible for payments to be made. The realization of mobile payments will make possible new and unforeseen ways of convenience and commerce. Unsuspected technological innovations are possible. Music, video on demand, location based services identifiable through mobile handheld devices – procurement of travel, hospitality, entertainment and other uses are possible when mobile payments become feasible and ubiquitous. Mobile payments can become a complement to cash, cheques, credit cards and debit cards. It can also be used for payment of bills (especially utilities and insurance premiums) with access to account-based payment instruments such as electronic funds transfer, Internet banking payments, direct debit and electronic bill presentment.

A mobile payment service in order to become acceptable in the market as a mode of payment the following conditions have to be met :

a) Simplicity and Usability: The m-payment application must be user friendly with little or no learning curve to the customer. The customer must also be able to personalize the application to suit his or her convenience.

b) Universality: M-payments service must provide for transactions between one customer to another customer (C2C), or from a business to a customer (B2C) or between businesses (B2B). The coverage should include domestic, regional and global environments. Payments must be possible in terms of both low value micro-payments and high value macro-payments.

c) Interoperability: Development should be based on standards and open technologies that allow one implemented system to interact with other systems.

d) Security, Privacy and Trust: A customer must be able to trust a mobile payment application provider that his or her credit or debit card information may not be misused. Secondly, when these transactions become recorded customer privacy should not be lost in the sense that the credit histories and spending patterns of the customer should not be openly available for public scrutiny. Mobile payments have to be as anonymous as cash transactions. Third, the system should be foolproof, resistant to attacks from hackers and terrorists. This may be provided using public key infrastructure security, biometrics and passwords integrated into the mobile payment solution architectures.

e) Cost: The m-payments should not be costlier than existing payment mechanisms to the extent possible. A m-payment solution should compete with other modes of payment in terms of cost and convenience.

f) Speed: The speed at which m-payments are executed must be acceptable to customers and merchants.

g) Cross border payments: To become widely accepted the m-payment application must be available globally, word-wide.

The Malaysian Electronic Payment System, commonly known as MEPS, is the only interbank network service provider in Malaysia.

Malaysian Electronic Payment System (1997) Sdn Bhd is a payment consortium owned equally by 12 local banks. Its subsidiary companies are MEPS Currency Management Sdn Bhd (MCM) and FPX Gateway Sdn Bhd (FPX).
MEPS plays a role in the implementation of smart card for Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card, which is an upgrade to chip-based card from previous magnetic-stripe card issued to all banks customer.

The card is also known as Bankcard, a card with multiple functions. There are three main functions that can be used namely ATM (with various combinations of banking transactions), e-Debit (online purchase payment) transactions at participating merchants and MEPS Cash (load in a monetary value into your Bankcard chip) and pay of participating merchants.

MEPS provides the following services in its network to all participating banks:

1.Shared Nationwide ATM Network, provides the switch which enable bank customers to conveniently access their funds anywhere from any of the participating banks’ ATMs.

2.Shared Regional ATM Network, a cross-border ATM link with Indonesia (ArtaJasa, Rintis), Singapore (NETS), Thailand (ITMX) and China (CUP) that offers participating banks’ customers the convenience of making cash withdrawals via ATM in the said countries and vice versa.

3.e-Debit, enables the purchase amount to be immediately deducted from the savings or current account direct into the retailer's or merchant's bank account. This provides consumers with better cash management and peace of mind as all transactions are PIN based. In addition, the new card is embedded with a sophisticated, tamper-resistant smart chip to protect consumers against the risk of fraud.

4.Mobile Prepaid Top-Up via ATM, offers more convenience for mobile phone subscribers to top-up through MEPS’ ATMs.

5.Interbank ATM Fund Transfer (IBFT), allows bank customers to transfer funds from one account to another account in another bank. The beneficiary will receive the funds immediately and instantaneously, as the transfer is online and in real-time.

6.Interbank GIRO (IBG), makes interbank funds transfer more convenient to bank customers via an electronic channel. It enables payments to be made without the need to raise physical supporting vouchers or documents such as cheques, bank drafts, etc. It is an interbank fund transfer system that facilitates payments and collections via the exchange of digitized transactions between banks. For corporations, it is ideal for high volume interbank payments up to a maximum of RM100,000 per transaction such as payroll and dividend/warrant payments. As for individuals, it is ideal for transactions such as credit card payments and loan repayments. It offers bank customers, be an individual or corporation, a secure interbank fund transfer system/channel for all sorts of payments through direct debiting of the customers' account(s) and crediting into the beneficiaries account; with any IBG participating banks.

7.Financial Processing Exchange (FPX), opens new doors for e-Commerce, in particular business to business (B2B) and business to commerce (B2C) payments. FPX is an alternative payment channel for customers to make payment at e-market places such as websites and online stores as well as for corporations to collect bulk payment from their customers. It leverages on the Internet banking services of participating banks and provides fast, secure, reliable, real-time online payment processing. FPX provides complete end-to-end business transactions, resourceful payment records, simplified reconciliation and reduced risks as fund movements are between established financial institutions.

Things to take note to prevent e-auction fraud when a consumer participating in an e-auction

Internet auction fraud is a growing epidemic worldwide, as online shopping has grown significantly every year that online shopping has been available. 51,000 cases of internet fraud cases were reported in 2002. In 2006, that number ballooned to 97,000. The numbers are staggering, but everyone can lower their risk by knowing what auction fraud is, how to detect it, and how to prevent falling for it.
Most internet auction fraud cases involve straightforward scams where consumers allegedly win merchandise by being the highest bidder. All sounds good until they send the payment and never receive the merchandise.

Some of the ways people can prevent e-auction fraud is by:

1. User identity verification such in IC number, driver’s license number or date of birth. For example, verified eBay user, the voluntary program, encourages users to supply eBay with information for online verification.

2. Authentication service. It is to determine whether an item is genuine and described appropriately. It difficult to perform because their training and experience, experts can detect counterfeits based on subtle detail.

3. Grading services which is a way to determine the physical condition of an item, such as ‘poor quality’ or ‘mint condition’. Different item have different grading systems. For example, trading cards are graded from A1 to F1, while coins are graded from poor to perfect uncirculated.

4. Feedback forum. It allows buyers and sellers to build up their online trading reputations. It provides user with ability to comment on their experiences with other.

5. Insurance policy. For example, eBay offers insurance underwritten, users are covered up to $200, will with a $25 deductible. The program is provided at no cost to eBay user.

6. Escrow services. Both buyers and sellers in a deal are protected with an independent third party. Buyer mails the payment to escrow services which verifies the payment and alerts the seller when everything checks out. An example of a provider of online escrow services s i-Escrow.

7. Non-payment punishment. To protect sellers, a friendly warning for first-time nonpayment. A sterner warning is for second-time offense, with a 30 day suspension for a third offense and an indefinite suspension for a fourth offense.

8. Appraisal services which use a variety of methods to appraise items. It includes expert assessment of authenticity and condition, and reviewing what comparable items have sold for in the marketplace in recent months.

9. Item verification which is a way of confirm he identity and evaluate the condition of an item. Third parties will evaluate and identify an item through a variety of means. For example, some collectors have their item “DNA tagged” for identification purpose. It provides a way of tracking an item if it charges ownership in future.

10. Physical inspection. It can eliminate many problems especially for collectors’ item

The application of pre-paid cash card for consumers

Pre-paid cash card means reloading funds or cash into the particular card and using it as any normal credit card or debit card. The difference is that the user can manage his/her financial spendings more efficiently. User who utilize this type of cards do not have to worry on interest rates at the end of the month.

It is considered as most secure and safe financial transaction card because can it likes a portable access point to checking account. Nevertheless, it could not use for online shopping and in “quick pay” terminals that have a card reader but no keypad to enter a personal identification number.

The following are some of the examples of prepaid cards offered by card institutions.

How to safeguard our personal and financial data?

Today's world of technological advances and virtual everything - banking, bill paying, etc. - it's more important than ever to make sure we protect our personal data. In recent years, the Internet has become an appealing place for criminals to obtain identifying data, such as passwords or even banking information. In their haste to explore the exciting features of the Internet, many people respond to "spam" - unsolicited e-mail - that promises them some benefit but requests identifying data, without realizing that in many cases, the requester has no intention of keeping his promise. In some cases, criminals reportedly have used computer technology to obtain large amounts of personal data.

With enough identifying information about an individual, a criminal can take over that individual's identity to conduct a wide range of crimes: For example, false applications for loans and credit cards, fraudulent withdrawals from bank accounts, fraudulent use of telephone calling cards, or obtaining other goods or privileges which the criminal might be denied if he were to use his real name. If the criminal takes steps to ensure that bills for the falsely obtained credit cards, or bank statements showing the unauthorized withdrawals, are sent to an address other than the victim's, the victim may not become aware of what is happening until the criminal has already inflicted substantial damage on the victim's assets, credit, and reputation.

To reduce or minimize the risk of becoming a victim of identity theft or fraud, there are some basic steps you can take. For starters, remember the word SCAM:
S: Be Stingy about giving out your personal information to others unless you have a reason to trust them, regardless of where you are.
C: Check your financial information regularly, and look for what should and shouldn't be there.
A: Ask periodically for a copy of your credit report.
M: Maintain careful records of your banking and financial accounts

This below is the 10 ways to safeguard our personal and financial data

1. Take Stock. Know what personal information you have in your files and on yourcomputers. Never leave sensitive papers in a common area unattended.

2. Scale Down. Keep only what you need for your business. If you don't have alegitimate business need for information, don't collect it.

3. Lock It. Protect the information that you keep. Limit access to employees with alegitimate business need. Control who has a key, the number of keys and knowwhen information is being accessed.

4. Pitch it. Properly dispose of what you no longer need. If you collect applicationswith personal financial information, make sure the paperwork is unreadablebefore you dispose of it. Crosscutshredding is an effective way to preventidentity thieves from stealing it from your trash.

5. Email Restrictions. Regular email is not a secure method for sending sensitivedata. Never send personal financial information via Email.

6. Protect It. Use antivirusand antispywaresoftware, as well as a firewall, andupdate them all regularly. Also, use a passwordactivatedscreen saver to lockyour screen whenever you are not in front of it.

7. Use "Strong" Passwords. The longer the password, the better. Use passwordswith a mix of letters, numbers & characters and frequently change yourpassword. Do not use the same password for all of the various accounts youaccess with a password.

8. Limit Team Roles. Only allow certain employees to access sensitive personalfinancial information wherever it is. Manage the user permission of youremployees carefully on places like the Member Solutions or banking websites.

9. Make Sure Your Vendors are PCI Compliant. Any financial institution,software provider, merchant processor, or other company that you do businesswith should be taking steps to be PCI compliant. Any company or softwareapplication that contains cardholder data must comply.

10. Treat it Like it Was Your Own. Safeguard all personal financial information ofyour customers, employees or anyone else like is was your own personalinformation.

Even though financial institutions are required to maintain copies of your checks, debit transactions, and similar transactions for five years, you should retain your monthly statements and checks for at least one year, if not more. If you need to dispute a particular check or transaction, especially if they purport to bear your signatures, your original records will be more immediately accessible and useful to the institutions that you have contacted.