Civil servants can use new ways to communicate

A seminar on Green IT in Sabah, Malaysia was held 30 December 2010. This was hosted by Sabah INTAN, Sabah Malaysia Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, state Computer Services Department and the Malaysian Cocoa Board. At this Datuk Muhammad Hatta Aziz, State federal secretary is reported to have said that most civil servants were still using paper mail and refusing to accept replies by email (at best allowing for fax). This wasted paper, as well as making government processes less efficient. It is despite the Malaysian government issuing a green technology policy last year.

The National Archives of Malaysia issued a comprehensive "Electronic Records Management System (ERMS) System Specifications for Public Offices" in 2009. This was developed into "Principles and Functional Requirements
for Records in Electronic Office Environments, Module 2" (International Council on Archives, 2008) now ISO 16175-3:2010 (25 November 2010) and so is comparable to those of other countries. This should allow Malaysian civil servants to communicate electronically.

The Faculty of Information Management at UiTM runs courses in e-records management. My own "Electronic Document and Records Management" course at ANU addresses this and is avialable online to students in Malaysia.

"IT-Sideways: Tech Blog Malaysia" reports that the only green measure in the 2011 budget was hybrid cars will enjoy .