Malaysia will no longer dole out prizes to lure citizens to apply for new identity cards, Bernama reported today.

Home Minister Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said rewarding people just for applying for the new cards was a foolish move, and that the prizes would instead be donated to orphanages.

"Hold lucky draws (and) only then the public will come - that's rubbish," Radzi was quoted as saying by the Bernama news agency. "It is a silly thing to do."

The government has been on a drive for nearly two years to get Malaysians to give up their old plastic-coated identity cards for new cards containing so-called smart chips.

The grand prize was a car.