Infrastructure (Telecom)

INTRODUCTION

The telecommunication system in Malaysia is among the most modern in southeast Asia and provides not only telephone, telegraph and telex services but also communication facilities for broadcasting, civil aviation, police, customs and fisheries. The whole country is served by a microwave trunk telephone network linking all the towns.

Communication between Peninsula Malaysia and Sabah and Sarawak are via satellite and the troposcatter system and by submarine cable enabling the operation of nationwide Subscriber Trunk Dialing (STD) and the expansion of television broadcasting services throughout the country.

POSTAL SERVICE

The Postal Services was corporatised on 1 January 1992 and since then measures have been taken to expand and upgrade the facilities to improve the quality of service provided. During the period 1993 to 1997, 31 new post offices were set up. To enhance customer convenience, several post offices in urban areas extended their operational hours to 10 p.m. and nearly 3,000 stamp vendors were appointed to reach the public especially in the rural areas. To improve the efficiency of counter services more than 95% of the post offices were computerised.

With the infrastructural and technological developments, the mobile post offices outlived their usefulness and were gradually phased out from 99 in 1993 to 22 in 1997. Similarly with the introduction of the vendor stamps, the postal agencies were reduced from 990 in 1993 to 490 in 1997.

The volume of postal items handled increased by nearly 9.5% between the years 1993 and 1997. Of the more than 1 billion postal items handled in 1997, about 97% were for delivery within Malaysia.

The number of road accidents has been on the increase inspite of the measures taken by the government to ensure road safety and comfort of travel. In 1993, the number of accidents totaled 136,996 and this increased to 215,632 in 1997, reflecting an average annual increase of 12%. Among other factors, the greater frequency of road accidents could also be attributed to the increase in the number of vehicles, especially motorcars and motorcycles, during this period. In 1997, of the 338.066 vehicles involved in road accidents, about 60% were motorcars. This was followed by motor cycles (24%) and goods vehicles (12%).

The casualties from these accidents, both injuries and death, also were on an increase through at a decreasing rate. In 1993, there were 41,686 casualties of which about 11% (4,666) were deaths. In 1997, there were 56.574 casualties including 6,302 or 10.6% death. The average number of deaths per 100 accidents decreased from 3.4 to 2.9.