As the world’s paradigm shifted to the cyber-information age the Malaysian government sees this as technologically rewarding and is eagerly intent in pushing for an internationally-acclaimed IT-literate nation that is completely aware of the importance of ICT toward sustainable development. Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), was therefore born to spearhead the objectives of developing and nurturing the local ICT industry to compete at the international level. While Malaysia has overall been successful in supplying electricity and other basic amenities to almost all parts of Malaysia, today, it is hoping to score the same with the ICT field where the aim is to become an endless horizon of ICT hub.
In the past 10 years, Malaysia has continuously heightened the utilization of ICT in various fields. With the birth of MSC, 7 distinctive innovations such as Electronic Government, Multi-purpose Card(MyKad), Smart School, Telehealth, R&D Clusters, E-business and Technopreneur Development are put in place as ground for Malaysian government’s commitment towards the information era and to signify the importance of ICT in giving directions toward the development of Malaysia’s future. With the increased of internet usage penetration, even at slower phase, the directions towards ICT Hub is seen to be possible. Source: Internet World Stats.
Malaysia recognizes the importance of effectively utilizing ICT in education to cushion the growing demand for a highly-skilled work force that excels in various aspects and most importantly, versatile in the sense of being able to adapt to whatever environment subjected on them as a result of the rapidly expanding economy. Smart School or better known in Malaysia as ‘Sekolah Bestari, is one of the many long term initiatives Malaysian government plans in meeting the increasing demand for a sophisticated labor force. This initiative is also part of the Malaysian government's long-term plans to develop an IT-literate Malaysian society by the year 2020. Smart Schools are supplied with computers, internet connection and computer.
ICT has also been shown to be positively, if not proportionally, related to a country’s economic development and opportunities. Economic growth rides heavily on the efficient and effective use of the country’s resources which could include land, labor, knowledge and technology. One of the MSC plans, Technopreneur Development, which is to draw and steer Small and Medium Enterprises to the right direction toward the full adoption of ICT which will provide the tools in manipulating, organizing and optimizing the usage of available resources to increase productivity that in return, will boost the country’s economic growth and indirectly the standard of living. E-Business environment, has also been carefully planned where companies with MSC companies will thrive and at the same time, bolster economic growth. Hence, companies will eventually have real-time operational control of the entire production process, from product development at the R&D stage, manufacturing and marketing to distribution.
In serving and engaging the citizens, the Malaysian government has joined many governments in the world in indulging in the initiative of delivering electronic-government service to its people as it is fully aware of the contribution toward governments’ efficiency, accessibility, transparency and accountability through the implementation of ICT-based services. The primary aim of this initiative is to create a virtually paperless administration which is environmentally friendly. Programs under this initiative include all types of E-Services. Electronic and multimedia infrastructures will eventually encompass all levels of government, and in doing so, information flows and processes related to government affairs will be made faster and more efficient and at the same time strengthen civic engagement. Another initiative in the blueprint is the Multipurpose Card or MyKad which has been discussed in my previous entry.
Having said all the above, it is no doubt that there is an increasing awareness of technology in Malaysia. With the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Project and the government’s commitment to a technological society, a large number of high tech companies from around the world have started to set up in Malaysia. But efforts at encouraging the wider community to embrace technology have so far not been totally successful. Malaysian is less likely to be aware of the ICT development in Malaysia and hence leads to passive participations in majority of the ICT programs. This is an area to focus on, along with the rapid and fast shift of the paradigm.
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