Raising fines for traffic offenders may not necessarily make roads safer, said Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai.

"The compound is definitely one of the way, but it doesn't mean higher compound will reduce the number of accidents.

"We have tried it before," Liow said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

He was responding to inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar's proposal to raise the quantum of traffic summonses to make roads safer.

Liow then reiterated his remarks earlier today that there should be a multi pronged approach to dealing with bad drivers.

This includes a demerit system which results in offenders having their licenses taken away.

Liow said this after witnessesing a Memorandum of Understanding signing between Shell Malaysia and the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety (Miros).

Under the MoU, Shell would grant Miros a sponsorship of RM450,000 to carry out its work.

The signing coincided with launch of the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP).

The iRAP aims to asses the quality of Malaysian roads, and how to improve it.

Liow said Malaysia aims to have 75 percent of major roads in Malaysia to have 3 out of 5 star rating by 2020.