KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara Malaysia is working with Malaysian Electronic Payment Systems Sdn Bhd (MEPS) and the banking industry to develop the Financial Process Exchange (FPX), a national payment system for secure electronic payment according to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) in its 2002 report released Thursday.

The FPX would be launched on a pilot basis in the third quarter of this year.

According to the report, Malaysia will continue to register growth in the Information Communications Technology (ICT) and e-commerce sectors in the years to come.

Quoting the projections made by IDC, Miti said for the period of 2001 to 2006, Malaysia’s ICT market was expected to reach US$4.2 bil (RM15.9 bil) with a compound annual growth (CAGR) of 18%, while the global ICT industry was expected to record a CAGR of 6.2%.

In line with the expected growth, the government has allocated RM 5.2bil for ICT programmers and projects under its 8th Malaysia Plan.

Out of the amount, RM 1.8bil has been allocated for the implementation of several Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) flagship applications, including the proposed e-Business Flagship initiative to accelerate the adoption and uptake of e-business by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and large corporations.

This initiative would also identify mechanisms to improve the competitiveness of Malaysian companies supplying e-business solutions, products and services for the local and export markets.

Miti said spending in the telecommunications industry was expected to increase with companies in the sector competing to provide higher value-added services to stay ahead.

It said the government had allocated RM 1bil to the sector for the upgrade and expansion of telecommunications and IT infrastructure.

According to the report, investments in ICT by the private sector were expected to increase, with the highest percentage coming from traditional consumers of ICT products and services.

The banking and finance sector has already rationalized its operations and would focus on building vale-added services, especially online banking services, Miti said.

In 2002, the ICT sector was dominated by telecommunications services, both fixed and wireless, that registered a growth of 6% to RM 9.7 bil.

The IT industry recorded spending of RM7.2bil in 2002, an increase of 10 from RM 6.5bil in 2001.

E-commerce transactions in Malaysia grew by 104% to RM 5.3bil in 2002 from RM 2.6billion in 2001.

This increase coincided with a growth of 14% in the number of Internet users to 7.4 million in 2002 from 6.5 million in 2001, Miti said. - Bernama