KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is heading towards becoming a cashless society, said Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin (pic).

"I think we cannot run away from how people will pay for things and how we will use cash and make transactions in the future," said Khairy.

"It will have to be cashless and contactless," he added at the TN50 dialogue session with Touch 'n Go Sdn Bhd (TNG) here at TNG's Bangsar South headquarters on Tuesday.

Also present at the dialogue session were TNG chief executive officer Syahrunizam Samsudin and TN50 chief executive officer R. Effendi Razali.

He said that the goal would be to reduce the physical transactional element to payment so that it becomes easier for the user.

However, he said that it is important that these transactions are safe and ubiquitous for all Malaysians,

Khairy added that he expected resistance from the public, in particular the older generations.

"I think one of the biggest challenges for a country like Malaysia to convince people to migrate from cash would be the sense of security. We need to make it safe, so that it becomes more of a habit," he said.

Khairy warned that there were also risks to such a system and personal finance education would be crucial.

"Once you open yourself up to cashless transactions, you also open yourself up to cashless credit and that can get out of hand," said Khairy.

He added that a cashless society can open people to financial products.

"If you are not in the know, it can lead you to into a lot of trouble if you cannot manage your finances," he said.