KUALA LUMPUR, May 10 ― Long queues at airport immigration counters are something every traveller is familiar with. It’s part and parcel of modern travel, or is it?
Faisal Ariff wants to reduce airport congestion via a cloud passport that will also help bolster security.
The Transformasi Nasional 2050 (TN50) ambassador is hopeful that his Borderpass software, which is currently in early test stages, gains traction in all Asean airports within the next five years and worldwide after.
Borderpass is a personal recognition software developed by Faisal's three-man start-up company to “improve the efficiency of crowd management” at airport immigration counters.
Relying on grants, they have created a software, an automated gate and a kiosk which allows immigration clearance at airports to be more convenient.
“Around Asean, we have a bit of a problem with overcrowding. You spend all the time waiting to have a two-minute conversation with the immigration officer.
“We started with the question: why do you have to wait till the very last moment to send your passport information? Wouldn't it be cool if you can do it the moment you book your flight?” he said
(This is in reference to the disembarkation forms travellers have to fill when they enter a country.)
“That's how we came up with Borderpass and the benefit for you is when you land, they already know who you are and you get to use an automated gate. You save a whole bunch of time,” Faisal told Malay Mail Online.
The check-in process via the Borderpass machine would take less than 30 seconds.
The 35-year-old added that Borderpass, which is currently being tested out at KLIA2, can also help notify authorities about in-coming passengers.
“There is pre-screening. You know who is coming before they arrive. That also is quite useful.
“That way you help take pressure off manual lanes. They can spend more time on cases they (immigration authorities) feel need more attention,” Faisal explained.
Addressing security concerns about personal data protection, he said Borderpass has taken all the precautionary measures necessary.
The former fund manager also hopes this technology can be used to reduce congestion at the Malaysian-Singapore border as well as when the High Speed Railway (HSR) between the two countries kicks off.
“Second thing we want to fix is Johor-Singapore. That's going to help a lot of people. You’re talking about both Singaporeans and Malaysians. That's a big problem.
“We hope to help with the HSR. It's going to be 90 minutes from KL to Singapore... to spend one hour at immigration after that kinda negates the whole benefit of it,” he pointed out.
In his role as a TN50 ambassador, Faisal wants to help educate young Malaysians on entrepreneurship especially in the start-up sector.
He said that future entrepreneurs should look at solving day-to-day problems instead of trying to emulate business success in other countries.
“I think we are importing too much Silicon Valley culture into Malaysia. Young people are setting up a lot of companies to emulate, copy something else out there. They are doing it because they hope someone will buy them out for a big giant bag of gold.
“At the end of it, this is not something terribly useful to people in your country or community. You've wasted a lot of your life doing that and you don't have transferable skills as a result,” Faisal pointed out.
By using his experience with Borderpass as a guide, Faisal wants to inspire Malaysians into leading the way when it comes to innovation in various fields.
He also wants to hear about their aspirations, which he thinks the TN50 programme has given him an ideal platform for.
“If the goal is to make the world's first cloud passport so we can give Malaysians a boost, so be it.
“We like to look down on ourselves. Some news comes out, we ask when is Malaysia going to get there? Instead of complaining, why not do something about it?” Faisal said.
“Work on something that you are excited about. If you want to do something better than anyone else, make sure you have the skills for it as the failure rate is very, very high,” he stressed.
* Faisal Ariff is one of the 13 TN50 ambassadors handpicked to assist Putrajaya in mapping the country’s future based on their respective expertise.
