KUALA LUMPUR: All newborn babies will be issued MyKid, the children’s version of the MyKad, in about two months when the card goes nationwide.

This also means they will automatically receive an identity card number.

Under a pilot project, MyKid was issued to 2,500 newborn babies at the National Registration headquarters in Petaling Jaya and its offices here and in Ipoh.

NRD director-general Datuk Azizan Ayob said the facility would be available to all newborn babies and children below the age of 12 in two months.

He said the fee for MyKid had yet to be decided although the card was issued for free during the pilot project.

It would not replace the birth certificate, he said, which is an international requirement.

However, he said, MyKid would facilitate children’s dealings with school registration, hospitalisation and banking.

It could contain their birth, education and health (such as blood group) information.

“For example, when a child is brought to the hospital, his information can be downloaded into the computer system, eliminating the need to fill forms,” he said after launching the iVEST Service Providers' seminar, “MyKad PKI for unlimited e-service” at the JW Marriot Hotel yesterday.

iVest, an innovation of Mimos Bhd, deploys the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) technology for secure online transactions and communications through any iVEST-enabled website.

MyKads that are PKI-ready would come with an easy-to-use online kit from iVest.

Azizan said the NRD issued 700,000 PKI-enabled MyKads since last month out of the total 3.5 million MyKads issued to date.

By 2005, he said, the NRD expected to issue five million PKI-enabled MyKads, making the total issued 8.5 million.

He hoped the service providers and certification authority would encourage the use of the PKI application by the public and private sectors.

He said while government agencies and departments were not ready to use the PKI application, the possibility of online transactions with the application was enormous.

“At present, if you lose your MyKad, you need only to call up the NRD headquarters which will ask you for your parents’ names and your address for identity verification.

“With the PKI, authentication of the MyKad holder’s identity is easy so you can do the replacement, including paying the fees, online,” he said.

He said the application could be used to pay summonses, income tax and road tax and renew driving licences.

Azizan said out of the nine original applications planned for the MyKad, eight were incorporated.

The ninth, he said, was the frequent travel card.

However, he said there are also plans to incorporate information such as marital status, voter's status and information of the disabled.

On the frequent travel card, Azizan said Malaysia was discussing with Brunei, Indonesia, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand on adopting the smart card as a frequent travel card.