Limkokwing Creativity Grooms ICT-Savvy Talents

An advocate of creativity and innovation since the 1970s, the Limkokwing University of Creativity Technology (LUCT) is taking the lead by producing graduates equipped with the right skills and capabilities to drive the ICT industry and their careers.

ICE- a way of life

Information technology is very much a part of everyday life: the computer occupies a central position not only in business organisations but increasingly in fields as diverse as manufacturing to space exploration and banking.

This has created a wealth of opportunities for Malaysia, which is moving into a high-income and innovation-driven economy, one area that well-qualified ICT graduates are able to provide the momentum to propel it.

Geared for success

The LUCT Faculty of Information and Communication Technology offers internationally-recognised BSc degrees including Mobile Computing, Games Technology and Business Information Technology, as well as postgraduates studies in Computer Networking and Communication. Delve into the exciting world of ICT where you will get to learn all you’ve ever wanted to know about:

• Games Programming
• Digital Modelling and Animation
• Artificial Intelligence
• Interactive Multimedia
• Real-Time Systems
• Internet Security Knowledge
• Grid Computing

High-flying ICT careers

The programmes are tailored to ensure graduates are industry-ready and able to blend in with different cultures and nationalities, making them attractive to potential employers.

Some of the career options one would consider as an ICT graduate would be:

Chief Information Officer (CIO)
A CIO heads the IT group within an organisation, and usually reports to the chief executive officer (CEO). You will be the visionary ICT leader, spearheading ambitious projects that will enhance the growth and business strategy of the organisation and will be responsible for the overall strategic direction and management of the organisation’s IT infrastructure.

Security Analyst
As the person ensuring the security of the organisation, you will have to be privy to security breaches and network intrusions. The guardian of the ICT hardware and software, you handle all security documentation and assess the suitability of new technologies on existing or planned systems.

Analyst Programmer
This role requires knowledge of a variety of programming languages. If you’re good at programming, you will enjoy installing, designing, modifying, testing and writing programmes, and supporting work teams and solving problems with software.

Blending the world’s diverse cultures

The Limkokwing campus in Cyberjaya is an experience unlike any other. Students from all over the world converge, making it a dynamic multicultural environment with 70% of the 9,000 students coming from over 160 countries worldwide.

The university has some 30,000 students studying in its 12 campuses in Botswana, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Lesotho, Malaysia and the United Kingdom. A big part of its appeal is the university’s innovative brand of creative education that merges the best of East and West education.

Experience London

In a rapidly developing world, the learning experience today has to include exposing young people to global business trends and innovation.

London - one of the world’s most vibrant and lively cities - is the heart of Limkokwing’s Global Research Centre for Creativity and Innovation.

Located in the heart of thriving Piccadilly, the campus provides students a unique opportunity to cross over to nearby locations for research in business, design, multimedia or any other fields of study.

An ICT student now has an opportunity to graduate with two awards, one Asian and one British. This is an exclusive route for Limkokwing students to spend their final year or semester in London, enabling them to obtain a Limkokwing award and a second credential from Anglia Ruskin University of Cambridge or University of Gloucestershire, UK.

IPAD3 UNVEILING IN EARLY FEBRUARY, ALONG WITH iOS 5.1 ?

   

       As the release date approaches fast, the rumour mill surrounding the next generation iPad is spinning madly. While analysts have been busy trying to place their bets on the specifications of Apple's iPad 3, the launch date itself is the latest hot topic for discussion.

One fresh piece of information on this matter has been offered by the Japanese website Makotakara, who are suggesting that the next generation iPad will be introduced to the market even earlier than expected.

"According to Asian supplier and a source in United States, Apple seems to prepare to hold Special Event in early February. Because Chinese factory will be in holiday of New Year, then new product is considered to be released in early March," Makotakara writes.

This more or less aligns with a previous report that the iPad 3 release may coincide with Steve Jobs' birthday on February 24th, in honour of the iconic former Apple CEO. The gap between an announcement and a new product's availability is normally a few weeks.

      Most of the industry observers agree that Apple is keeping to a tight release schedule, in light of the increasing competition and rate of technological advance. While the first iPad was introduced in January 2010 and the second generation iPad hit the market in March, anytime in this timeframe will allow Apple to respect the yearly schedule.

Meanwhile, MacRumors claims that the iPad 3 launch event could well include the release of iOS 5.1, which is thought to be in the pipeline for around then.

Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/2012/01/19/ipad3-unveiling-early-february-along-ios-51/#ixzz1k2yEHGbx

INTERNET LEADER DEFENDS COMING CHANGE IN URLs

(Reuters) - Companies and law enforcement agencies nervous about a huge expansion in Internet domains - adding to .com, .net and others - will have many ways to protect trademarks and identify website owners, the head of the organization that organizes the Internet said on Tuesday.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers begins accepting applications on Thursday for a hugely expanded number of Web domains. Verisign, which runs the .com registry, has estimated there will be up to 1,500 applications, which cost $185,000.

Many corporations view the proliferation of top level domains as a giant problem. Companies already hire lawyers to defend their trademarks online and most were forced to spend money recently to ensure trademarks were not on the sexually oriented .xxx domain when it was introduced.

Following complaints from the Federal Trade Commission and others that registries of website owners were sometimes poorly maintained, making it difficult to shut down scams, ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom pledged that the top executives of all new registrars would undergo criminal background checks.

But Beckstrom argued that privacy groups and others pushed back against calls for detailed registries of website owners, called the WHOIS database.

"WHOIS is a really tough problem," he said.

Warren Adelman, CEO of Go Daddy which sells website names, said he had supported the go-slow approach urged by law enforcement and some members of Congress.

"We strongly recommended that there be a small pilot program and then expand that as sort of a measured way," he said.

In general, those who work with ICANN closely say privately the organization does a fairly good job of the very tough task of organizing the Internet internationally. The main criticism is that it sometimes fails to explain the reasoning behind its decisions, making it look high-handed.

In response to companies' concerns about trademarks, Beckstrom said that, in early May, ICANN would publish who had applied for what top level domain and allow protests.

Trademark violators would be shut down quickly, he said in a presentation at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

Sixty-one domain registrars have been stripped of their registrations or not renewed since 2003 because of violations such as failing to maintain proper documentation of who ran websites, failure to pay fees, or other problems, says Stacy Burnette, director for contractual compliance at ICANN.

TO MARKET, TO MARKET

Beckstrom argued the expansion gave new opportunities for companies.

"Not everybody has the domain name they want today," he said.

He also argued the expansion would create a more international Internet by allowing top level domains in Chinese, Hindi and other languages that do not use the Latin alphabet.

Just in English, there could well be hundreds of applications for city names such as .Berlin or .Paris and many others for generic words such as .music or .food.

Theo Hnarakis, CEO of Melbourne IT Group which counts 3,500 companies among its clients, said about 100 of his clients were registering top level domains, some to prevent cybersquatting and others as a branding opportunity.

"We are seeing some companies with a sense that this is a wonderful marketing opportunity," he said. "Overstock applied for O.CO (following the last round of expansions). Why? Because ... the shorter the name, the more memorable it is."

If customers do not use search engines to find businesses but URLs instead, companies could save millions on paid click advertising, Hnarakis added.

(Reporting By Diane Bartz; editing by Andre Grenon)

TOP 10 ICT PREDICTIONS FOR ASIA-PACIFIC: IDC

 By Jack Loo, 30 November 2011 

    With the uncertain economic outlook for 2012, analyst house IDC expects companies in the region to take a cautious approach to ICT spending in the coming year.

"As consumers and workforces are becoming smarter, more affluent and demanding, companies will need to match their efforts with intelligent spending to avoid getting their fingers burnt in case another worldwide crisis hits," said Claus Mortensen, principal for emerging technology research, IDC Asia/Pacific.

Business leaders are likely to face difficult investment decisions; to maintain growth; organisations will be looking to leverage ICT in newer and more robust ways. And IDC expects ICT spending in the APEJ region to reach $US653 billion in 2012, which is a 10.4 per cent growth over 2011. The firm was quoting insights from its Predictions report for 2012.

The following 10 ICT predictions are what IDC believes will have the strongest impact on enterprise IT in the region:

1) The rise of what IDC terms as "Emerging Asian Enterprise"

Numbering some 2000 across the Asia-Pacific region except for Japan, these companies are not branches of MNCs, but "true-blue Asian companies," said Sandra Ng, GVP - ICT practice, IDC.

In these organisations, CIOs are looking at new ways to compete more effectively and shorten the time to market for their IT investments. Possible areas of investments include mobility, cloud, analytics and social media. Hungry for growth, these companies are all about speed in terms of time to market, Ng added, and their internal technology processes need to be wired to support fast-paced growth.

Another characteristic is that their IT demands can change or increase, even after deals have been signed with the vendor or service provider. "The vendor can have massive pre-sales work done up, but the customer might then decide to make changes to the project scope," Ng pointed out.

2) The Singular appeal

The complexity of the Asia/Pacific market has led to a need and appreciation of "singular" offerings and players where a single portfolio can generate a successful and sustainable business model for the vendor/provider.

One example is China-based BesTV, an IP-TV provider who is focused solely on offering family entertainment programmes. Its success has led to many TV stations wanting to approach the company as a case study subject.

3) Orchestrating the Cloud

Cloud service providers will be providing integrated management of disparate cloud services, or cloud orchestration in 2012 and beyond.

In 2011, IDC estimates that 80 per cent of new enterprise application development will be for the public cloud, and by 2015, 20 per cent of enterprise application spending will be cloud-sourced. As a result, cloud service buyers will have to manage a much larger number of services and vendors, adding another level of management difficulty.

4) The arrival of the Chief Data Scientist

With the emergence of "Big Data", the most useful insights will come though the high-end analytics that can be performed on the increasing volumes, velocity and variety of data organisations are generating.

This means that there will be requirements for new analyst skill sets, and the Chief Data Scientist will emerge in 2012 as a job title to help organisations define their "Big Data" strategies.

5) Automation in the Cloud

With uncertain economic conditions, the ability to quickly provision IT capabilities and resources will become a key differentiator for CIOs, according to IDC.

As the next wave of workloads move into the cloud, IDC believes it will become increasingly important to standardise and automate IT processes and that automation will be a key focus point for CIOs in 2012.

6) Innovation scouts from telcos

IDC believes that in 2012, forward-looking telcos will form dedicated innovation scout teams to find new and unique applications and content to their customers, as a key differentiator factor in the competitive telecommunications industry.

7) Virtualisation to deal with unpredictable systems

Instead of relying on redundancy, organisatons are expected to bank on virtualisation to allow them to build a margin of error into their IT platforms that permits failure. This concept is likely to become the preferred approach when deploying larger virtualised x86 environments within the next few years.

8) Companies look towards customer-centric IT

Due to the uncertain economic outlook, IDC expects "customer-centricity" to be on the top of the agenda for companies in Asia/Pacific in 2012, together with a focus on technologies that help companies increase customer focus, customer engagement, and increase their knowledge of those customers who contribute the most to their business.

9) New workspace architectures built around mobility, Cloud and data services

Consumerisation has created new demands on the work environment and IDC expects organisations to use desktop refreshes, green field deployments and remote/small site operations as opportunities to pilot new mobile services and solutions in 2012.

10) The middleclass smartphone

IDC expects the market to see the introduction of sub-US$100 smartphones in 2012, which will in turn create big opportunities for service providers in emerging Asia. IDC also believes consumers in these markets will soon demonstrate the same addictive nature to mobile applications as seen in mature markets.

BRILLIANCE ICT

TRACKING ICT USE IN EDUCATION ACROSS AFRICA

Submitted by Michael Trucano on Fri, 10/02/2009 

The announcement from the World Bank earlier this week about a new $215 million Central Africa Backbone Program that will bring low cost, high speed Internet to the region is the latest in a series of good news about improving connectivity across the continent, and between Africa and the rest of the world.   Kenya is just one of many East African countries which can expect a decrease in costs and improvement in quality in the not too distant future as a result of the recent landing of the Seacom  and Teams cables, and two projects which the World Bank supports, the Regional Connectivity Infrastructure Project (RCIP) and (through the IFC), the EASSy cable.
What does, or might, all of this improved connectivity mean for students and teachers in Africa? How can we keep track of all of the related changes happening throughout the continent?

   It is certainly true that low-income countries throughout the continent continue to face daunting challenges as they attempt to ensure that all children complete a full cycle of primary education by 2015, something which the so-called Fast Track Initiative is meant to help address.  But there is room for optimism too.
Many people see great potential for advances in information and communication technologies to help provide new tools and approaches to educational practices going forward, and indeed the 'potential' is undeniable.  Moving beyond the rhetoric, however, it is a challenge to keep track of what is actually happening.  As infoDev's Survey of ICT and Education in Africa said back in 2007, "ICT use in education is at a particularly dynamic stage in Africa, which means that there are new developments and announcements happening on a daily basis somewhere on the continent". infoDev's country-by-country surveys were meant to help document these developments, joining existing resources like Schoolnet Africa's African Education Knowledge Warehouse and the long-standing knowledge work of the Commonwealth of Learning and SAIDE. The annual e-Learning Africa conference (whose next offering will take place in Lusaka in May 2010) is just the most prominent example of the increasing regional academic and networking opportunities for policymakers and practitioners throught the continent to stay abreast of the latest developments.

   To these efforts we can add that of the pan-African Observatory on ICT use in education, an open knowledge-sharing resource for research on the pedagogical integration of ICT. This on-line information repository is supported by an IDRC-funded project with quite a long name, the "Panafrican Research Agenda on the Pedagogical Integration of ICT" (rather surprisingly for a donor-supported project, it carries no convenient acronym, so it often goes by the shortname "PanAf'). This project, coordinated by ROCARE/ERNWCA and the University of Montreal, working with universities in eleven countries, provides perhaps the best one-stop-shop on the web to monitor the news and many of the more prominent initiatives emerging across the continent.  Monitoring its regularly updated, blog-style front page (unfortunately there is no RSS feed available) is, together with strategic monitoring and searching of the AllAfrica.com news portal, a convenient way to stay in the loop on interesting debates, such as that which occured at the recent  recent items of note include proceedings from the Acacia Research & Learning Forum on the role of the private sector in all that is happening in this area. The growing interest in public-private partnerships to support action is undeniable, and the recent announcement that the government of Kenya is teaming up with USAID and a consortium of private sector partners on an ambitious joint project to "enable 21st-Century education in Kenya schools" is just one example of such activities. In different ways, groups like PanAf and gatherings like TED Africa and the recent African Maker Faire in Accra showcase a dynamism that is largely unreported by most of the global news media.
Where all this will lead, no one knows, but there is no denying that we are witnessing encouraging developments. For those interested in the potentially transformative value of the use of technology in education, there will be much to learn from the experiences of African educators and students in the coming years.

FOSTERING EU-LATIN AMERICA ICT POLICY DIALOGUE

   Organized by the FORESTA project funded under the EU’s 7Th Framework Programme to support R&D cooperation between Latin America and Europe in the field of ICT, the conference ‘Fostering EU-Latin America ICT Policy Dialogue’ will take place in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday and Tuesday 28 and 29 November 2011. The event will be an important forum for European and Latin-American research stakeholders to discuss strategies to intensify cooperation in Information and Communication Technologies. It bring together stakeholders from ICT research, industry and industry federations, decision-makers, European and Latin-American research and innovation funding agencies, as well as SMEs and large companies from each region interested in cooperation with Latin America and with Europe.

   ‘Fostering EU-Latin America ICT Policy Dialogue’ event will use panels and round tables to elicit the insights of invited experts and inputs from the audience in order to develop strategic recommendations in support of a reinforced EU-LA ICT cooperation. The recommendations will be streamlined into a Joint Declaration that will be presented to representatives of the European Commission, the European Parliament and Latin-American governments in the closing session of the event to be held at the European Parliament.

Pro-Ideal and Pro-Ideal Plus partners will also actively participate at the event

BEYOND COMPUTER LITERACY

COURTING CHANGES By ASSOC PROF FONG SOON FOOK In today’s learning environment, teachers must be equipped with ICT knowledge and move from being passive users to active contributors.    In today’s ICT-enabled learning ecology, conventional training programmes to produce technically competent teachers are no longer adequate. To learn and work effectively in an increasingly information-rich environment, students and teachers must use ICT effectively. The necessity for this skill has already been proposed, rationalised and justified many times over in expert journals globally. Teachers are learning to use the computer more effectively to enhance their teaching skills. Malaysian students have been trained and empowered to achieve important ICT skills so that learning will be self-directed, self-paced and self-accessed. Teachers are responsible for establishing the classroom environment and preparing the learning opportunities that facilitate students’ use of technology to learn, communicate and develop knowledge. But how well are they equipped to provide their students with these skills and opportunities?    Conventionally, ICT competencies refers to the sets of basic knowledge and skills that are exhibited by a user in a digital era. Hence, various agencies within the Education Ministry have conducted training courses to equip teachers with ICT knowledge and skills. Concurrently, teachers have also been trained at the school, district or state level, and some have learnt ICT skills on their own as part of their on-the-job-responsibilities. Through these training programmes, the Ministry envisages that all teachers will move forward from being “computer literate” to actual users of supporting software developed by various agencies, and even capable of planning and designing effective constructive environments for students. The question now is: what is the impact of these training initiatives among teachers? Are our main stakeholders – the students – achieving expected outcomes? Are the training models used adequate to meet today’s demands? We propose that conventional training models be reviewed and transformed in alignment with research findings and current global demands for new learning environments. To be equipped with technical ICT skills and knowledge is the key to effective implementation of ICT in teaching and learning, but are these sufficient to address the current ecology of ICT-enabled learning? We surmise that training standards are as much about knowledge of curriculum and pedagogy, reflecting a shift in emphasis away from ICT as content to ICT as a tool.   A national ICT Competency Standard may serve as a reference point for development of ICT training programmes. This standard can ensure that all the trainings are of high quality and are relevant to the specific needs of teachers and students. The following categories of ICT competencies and performance indicators should be considered as benchmarks for all ICT Training Programmes for Malaysian teachers: ·Knowledge and Skills in basic ICT tools, including productivity applications software, web browsers and learning management system. ·Planning and Designing Rich-Learning Environments to support student-centred learning among students of diverse needs, including the use of collaboration and communication tools to support problem-based learning for a community of learners (COL). ·Pedagogical strategies to develop innovative ways to encourage students’ critical and creative thinking skills, including preparation of tools, rules and roles for students in a community of learners. ·Application of ICT-enabled Assessment and Evaluation to maximise learning through self-assessments of problem-solving, communication, collaboration, creative & communication skills. ·ICT-enabled Continuing Lifelong Professional Learning, Practice and Productivity for Just-in-time learning, including active participation in knowledge communities, sustaining own lifelong development and contributing to other COL. ·Ethics and moral values surrounding the educational use of computers and software applications. We advocate the establishment of a Malaysian ICT competency benchmark that will govern and direct the realisation of a transformed cohort of teachers who could contribute to higher quality education ­— and in turn produce a higher quality competitive workforce for the wellbeing and advancement of our economic and social development.    One of the core skills surrounding this aforementioned issue is an ability that is directly related to the rapid expansion of the World Wide Web (WWW). It requires teachers and students with superior competencies in using ICT to sieve through and choose relevant information that is available on the vast sum of human knowledge that is represented and available on the Web. The WWW had long ago reached singularity where information is infinite. Where Web 1.0 was about information storage, we are now in Web 2.0 where collaboration and global projects are the norm (think Facebook) and fast heading into Web 3.0, where individual IQs will no longer matter. What will instead matter will be collective intelligences, which bring together the collective IQs of teams of global citizens to work on decision making processes that has at its base a collective IQ amounting to millions of points.    Is Malaysia ready for this? Are our teachers and students geared for this radical shift in thought processes and approaches to learning and problem solving? What innovation is taking place in our schools and ministry that will create opportunities for exploring and developing new, unheard of skills that will soon become essential to not just the levelling up of our talents, but to sheer survival in new marketplaces? Where is Malaysia in the blossoming of new areas of studies in the fields of NBIC (Nano, Bio, Info and Cogno) technologies? In a world where these new areas of studies are being presented at primary and sometimes preschool levels, where does Malaysia stand in the complete overhaul and transformation of its curriculum? Learning the new rules, new roles and new ways of a learning environment that go hand-in-hand with ICT integration requires that teachers have opportunities to participate in an extended process of professional development. Teachers need time to acquire technology skills and develop new teaching strategies for integrating ICT into the classroom. At present, except for occasional in-service programmes, teachers often have no time built into the school day for their own professional development. In conclusion, it is important to ensure that all students have the opportunity to use ICT for student-centred projects. This is so that participation is enabled in complex, authentic tasks within a collaborative context and development of higher-order thinking skills will be developed and achieved. ICT that is used for deeper learning and that support a challenging curriculum will result in improved teaching and learning, increased student motivation and higher levels of student achievement.    Although there has been a strong push to have teachers trained and to supply educational software and hardware into the hands of teachers, many obstacles to implementation still exist. Equipment may not be placed in easily accessible locations. Hardware and software often pose problems for teachers in the classroom, and just-in-time technical support is unavailable. Teachers may lack the time and the motivation to learn ICT skills. School administrators and the ministry must persevere to find time for teacher professional development especially with regards to the upgrading of ICT competencies for the realisation of the new learning landscape. Assoc Prof Fong is attached to the School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia. Through this fortnightly column and through the revolutionary ENGAGE Programme – Education for Sustainable Global Futures – USM has started, he and his colleagues hope to help transform the landscapes of Malaysian schooling and higher education systems. He can be contacted through  theva@usm.my.

MINISTER WITNESSES SIGNING OF AGREEMENT BETWEEN JIA YU CHANNEL AND NANNING TV

Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Y.B. Datuk Seri Panglima Dr. Maximus Johnity Ongkili witnessed today the signing of an agreement between Jia Yu Channel (Astro 304) and Nanning TV (China) to formalise their fourth year of collaboration.    The agreement was signed by Jia Yu Channel’s CEO, Damien Leong, and Nanning TV’s Deputy Director, Yu Wei. The partnership between the two, which started in 2008, has involved the production of successful large-scale TV specials such as the “2010 Chinese New Year Special” and the “Jia Yu Chinese New Year Special”.   In conjunction with their fourth year of partnership, Jia Yu Channel and Nanning TV will launch another large scale event, the “Jia Yu Chinese New Year Special 2012”, which was held on Jan 7, 2012 at the Arena of Stars, Genting Highlands. The star-studded event,  attended by Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Maximus Ongkili and Health Minister Dato’ Sri Liow Tiong Lai, featured celebrities such as Michael Wong, Sheila Majid, Eser Loo, ManHanD, Danny Wan, Amy Wang, Zhuang Xue Zhong and other local artistes.   This musical extravaganza will be premiered simultaneously in China, Malaysia and Thailand. It will also be aired to audiences in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Singapore, Japan, Australia and New Zealand through China’s Pay TV channel, Kylin TV.   The partnership will also see the two companies entering into a timebelt exchange programme, whereby each party will have a weekly, fifteen-minute segment to air programmes promoting their respective country’s culture, customs and tourism. The time belt exchange programme will give Malaysia and fellow ASEAN countries greater coverage and influence in China while providing Southeast Asian audiences an insight into the Nanning’s vibrant and distinctive culture.   Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Maximus said that the timebelt would provide Malaysia a platform to convey its messages including what it had to offer, to the rapid growing market in China.   One of the results of the cooperation between the two companies will be the featuring of “Borneo Head Hunters” as one of the official cultural exhibitions at the 2012 China-ASEAN Expo. “Borneo Head Hunters” is a joint animation production by Jia Yu Channel and a production company in Guangzhou, Daley Entertainment.   The city of Nanning has become the permanent venue of the China-ASEAN Expo which promotes trade, industrial and cultural exchanges between China and ASEAN countries. The ongoing partnership between Jia Yu Channel and Nanning TV serves to strengthen these ties and promote the regional advantages of the China–ASEAN free trade hub.

ICT Diffusion

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In 2003, Malaysia ranked 26th in the world in network readinessabove several more developed nations. The creation of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), the establishment of industry regulators, research in ICT access, and the application of ICT to transform Malaysia into a knowledge-based society has led to the diffusion of technology

Malaysia is strong in the pervasiveness, geographical dispersion and organizational setting for ICT. Its weaknesses are in the absorption, connectivity infrastructure and sophistication of use.

Thrust	Vision	Key-Focus
E-Economy	All sectors of the Malaysian economy creating value and wealth through successful participation in the emerging knowledge-driven global economy.	Knowledge-driven economy
E-Public Services	The public, private and community sectors providing people-oriented, customer-focused services electronically.	Delivery mode of public goods and services
E-Community	Networks of communities dynamically participating in the process of governance to enhance the quality of life of Malaysians.	Participating governance for quality of life
E-Learning	Formal and informal networks providing the opportunity and cultivating an ethos of life-long learning for individual, organizational institutional and societal advancement.	A life-long learning culture
E-Sovereignty	Citizens and institutions focused on enhancing national identity, integrity and societal stability in the face of borderless challenges to our sovereignty.	Resilient national identity.

To further the diffusion of ICT, Malaysia has developed a universal service plan with the following primary objectives

Objective 1

All communities in Malaysia should have reasonable collective access to basic telephony services. Reasonable collective access to basic telephony services may be achieved by ensuring that each community has reasonable access to a public payphone at which a basic telephony service is available.

Objective 2

All communities in Malaysia should have reasonable collective access to Internet services. Reasonable collective access to Internet services may be achieved by ensuring that community centers (such as libraries and schools) receive (upon request within a reasonable time frame) a telephone connection with a minimum data channel of 128 kbps.

ICT empowering citizens of Malaysia Development with Destiny

Malaysia, an upper-middle economic state in SouthEast Asia, found its connectivity with the world with the installation of the first telephone line in 1874. The country developed its first computer system in 1966 and since then several initiatives to facilitate the integration of ICT in different areas have been introduced. The privatisation of the telecom sector in 1987, and the formation of the NTP (National Telecom policy) in 1994, led to the full liberalisation of the market. The enactment of the Communi-cations and Multimedia act in 1998 established the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (regulator) in support of national policy objectives. The regulator provides for economic, technical, consumer and social regulation ensuring competitiveness, licensing, frequency allocation, affordability and availability of ICT technologies and services. Framework for development (FID) is a five year rolling plan for ICT development. The country now faces the dilemma of ensuring global competitiveness as well as access to all.

e-Readiness of Malaysia
With a population of 25.58 million (2004) over an area of 330,000 sq. kms., Malaysia had an average population density of 74 people per square km., though it is unevenly spread across the country with the bulk of the population residing in the west half of the country. The economy of the country has been robust even in the wake of the economic setbacks in the Southeast Asian economies in 2000 and a SARS outbreak in 2003. The GDP of the country was reported as RM394 billion (2003) (RM 3.8= US $1), with a growth of 5.2 percent over 2002.
ICT has grown substantially in Malaysia contributing a (gross) revenue of RM19 billion to the economy. The total telephone penetration rates have reached a combined telephone penetration of 61.99 telephones per 100 people (2003).

The tele-density (fixed) has climbed to 20, with the mobile phone connections overtaking fixed lines. Deployments for 3G and EDGE mobile networks have also started.  Malaysia's performance with respect to other ASEAN countries has also been good, as shown in the graph.

The country's Internet development started in 1988 and by the end of 2003 the total dial-up penetration rate was 11.4 percent. Broadband Internet services started in 2001 and are still in their infancy. The absence of regulatory mechanisms allowing for local loop unbundling, the slow paces of the incumbent, and issues with last-mile connectivity have resulted in wireless broadband being preferred by operators. The broadband as well as the mobile segments though have been deployed around cities and urban areas.
Malaysia has embarked upon various measures to ensure the ICTs play an important role in the society. For ICT development the MSC - Multimedia Super Corridor (for global competitiveness) has been developed.

 The government has invested highly in its infrastructure. The MSC contains a high-speed 10Gb/s network connecting MSC to Japan, ASEAN, EU and the US. It supports public administration, education and business applications. Malaysia was ranked 26th in the world for e-Readiness. The telephone penetration rates rose by 7 percent while for the rural sector there was a rise of 6 percent (2000).

Malaysia’s GCIO shares new government ICT master plan

In 2020, Malaysia will become a ‘high-income nation’ that is both ‘inclusive and sustainable’, according to the vision laid out by the government.

Dato’ Dr Nor Aliah bt Mohd Zahri, the country’s Government Chief Information Officer, says that the new government ICT plan, which is currently being finalized, will play an indispensable role in achieving this vision.

Malaysia’s first public sector ICT plan, launched in 2003, was completed in 2010. Dr Nor Aliah is also the Deputy Director General (ICT) of Malaysia Administrative modernization and management planning unit, a special agency affiliated to the Prime Minister’s Department.

   Four strategic thrusts have been identified in order for the government to realize its vision for 2020. That includes: “1Malaysia, People First, Performance Now”; Government Transformation Programmed (GTP); Economic Transformation Programmed (ETP) and the 10th Malaysia Plan.

Various programmers are developed to address the ICT requirements for the government in the above-mentioned areas over the next five years.

The focus of GTP, reveals Dr Nor Aliah, is ‘deliver big results fast’. Three phases of implementation have been laid out: the first phase, started last year, will last until 2012; the second phase will last between 2012 and 2015, and the third one predicted to end in 2020. The programmed focuses on six areas: reducing crime, fighting corruption, improving student outcome, raising living standards for low-income households, improving rural basic infrastructure and improving public transport. In the 10th Malaysia plan, budgets are allocated for government to implement the strategies that have been identified.

Looking at global trends, Dr Nor Aliah says that the challenges in Malaysia are also about sharing of information and services in order to achieve greater efficiency and improve citizen service delivery – goals specified in the 1Malaysia vision.

   The public sector ICT blueprint, under which all agencies and departments will work towards the common goal, incorporates four key concepts: Information strategy which “enhances information sharing”, “ICT Governance”, “Managing Knowledge Effectively”, as well as “Strengthening the infrastructure architecture”.

For information architecture blueprint aims to achieve a whole-of-government by providing connected service delivery. The government will identify the business architecture components and map it into the information architecture components. The goal is to enhance public facing delivery channels, provide a common architecture standard for information sharing as well as enhance collaboration by identifying common, shareable and reusable information.

The phases will include building the foundation, achieving connected service delivery and finally seamless sharing of information by 2015.

In the area of governance, Dr Nor Aliah says of strengthening the governance structure is to “support and align with the national strategic priorities and initiatives by creating a more responsive governance environment to improve speed of decision-making and delivery”.

The strategy to build an informed knowledge environment includes the building of a Knowledge foundation programmed, knowledge practitioner development programmed as well as rewards & recognition programmed. In addition to inculcating the culture of knowledge management, the government will also strengthen knowledge management initiative in the public sector through development of high impact knowledge management projects and intelligence hub programmed. The objective is for an “Existence of a Centralized Knowledge Management Hub for the public sector” in five years’ time.

Dr Nor Aliah highlights the concern that currently “public sector ICT infrastructures are currently not fully optimized due to redundancies and inefficiencies resulting from disparate ICT infrastructure”. To increase the productivity, the government plans to consolidate public sector network, data centers & disaster recovery centers, establish public sector cloud computing infrastructure, standardize end user computing infrastructure, develop common security infrastructure, deploy mobile computing solutions and increase the usage of open source applications.

The public sector ICT framework has been developed, which include ICT governance and change management components.

   
   “In many areas, the government services are available but the usage rate is very low,” says Dr Nor Aliah, who adds that one of the objectives is to make sure more people use government services. Seven strategic objectives have been identified as part of the business strategy plan; these include streamlining ICT architecture; consolidating ICT operations; intensifying inter-agency collaboration; rationalizing ICT governance structures; attracting, developing and retaining top talent in the public service; strengthening the performance culture and fostering knowledge culture.

Numerous KPIs have been set in the areas including online services, paperless government, sharing of information and shared services. “All these contribute to the framework of our public sector ICT plan,” says Dr Nor Aliah.