July 25, 2001
Developing countries should work together to help the poor and the disadvantaged in the new digital and knowledge-centric world, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said on Tuesday.
"As the knowledge age dawns on us, developing countries have been presented with even more challenges. "This intellectual capital has become the main factor, if not the determinant of wealth creation," he said at the opening of the Regional Initiative for Information and Communications Technology Strategies Conference 2001 in Kuala Lumpur .
The conference is co-organised by the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit and the Commonwealth Network of Information Technology for Development. The three-day conference will discuss and address global concerns on the digital divide and seek effective ways to leverage information and communications technology (ICT) to enhance the social and economic well-being of citizens.
In his speech, which was read by Minister of Energy, Communications and Multimedia, Leo Moggie, Badawi said to face the onslaught of the digital revolution and globalisation, it is necessary to develop a strong ICT infrastructure.
Malaysia has taken an early lead in this sector with the implementation of the computer system by the Government in 1966. "We have taken various initiatives to facilitate the greater adoption and diffusion of ICT to improve capacities in every field of business, industry and life in general. "These measures include the provision of incentives for computerisation and automation, creation of venture capital funds, enhancement of education and training programmes and provision of an environment conducive f of ICT," he added.
As of March 2000, Malaysia recorded 1.2 million Internet users subscribers representing only about 5 percent of the population. He added that to enhance the country's competitiveness through the infusion of knowledge in all production-based industries and steering towards a knowledge-based economy, the Government is in its final stages of formulating the national k-economy master plan.
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