Malaysia 886

Malaysia wants to speed up the local information and communications technology (ICT) industry over the next five years with its proposed Malaysia 886 Plan, said Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik.

The plan is called Malaysia 886 as the government has identified eight services and eight infrastructures that the country needs and six growth areas to focus on.

The eight services included broadband, 3G services and beyond, mobile TV, digital multimedia broadcasting, digital home, radio frequency identification (RFID) base, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and universal service provision.

Of the eight infrastructures, three are hard infrastructures and five are soft infrastructures. The hard infrastructures are multi-service convergence network, 3G telegram network and satellites.

The soft infrastructures are next generation Internet Protocol (IPv6), information and network security, personal computer and Internet adoption, computer development and product design and manufacturing.

The six areas of growth under the plan will be based on content development, ICT education talks, set-talk boxes (which convert analog voice signals into digital signals), digital radio receivers, VoIP phones and overseas investment consultancy to promote these growth areas.

The government wanted to grow the local communications and multimedia (C&M) industry to RM76 billion by 2020, which is four times its size in 2004.