The City Hall (DBKK) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Percetakan Nasional Malaysia Berhad (PNMB) to produce DBKK Smart Cards, a multifunctional card made to facilitate coordination and management of City Hall community programmes.

Mayor Datuk Yeo Boon Hai said the Smart Cards are aimed at reactivating the City Friends initiative started by the first mayor Brigadier General Datuk Haji Abdul Ghani Haji Abdul Rashid in 2002, which the former said they had over 20,000 registered members but only a few active ones.

"This latest initiative (Smart Cards) is our effort to reinforce the City Friends programme and add value to its activities.

"We also hope that, with the introduction of these Smart Cards, the public will be keener to join our community programmes" said Yeo, adding that the role of volunteers was of utmost importance in spreading the word regarding issues and campaigns launched by City Hall.

Features of the Smart Card include paperless registration and a QR code for security confirmation, with future plans of equipping the card with an e-wallet feature to enable payment through smartphone mobile applications.

Applicants can also access membership information via the internet or mobile application, which will be developed by PNMB.

The registration fee for the Smart Card is RM10, however, City Hall will reimburse the fee with parking coupons of the same value.

The card can also be used to collect points when participating in City Hall activities, which will entitle cardholders to free membership renewal the following year if they meet the required number of points.

Membership renewal fee and allocation of points based on activities will be determined later on.