Digital Reach

ment to ICT for Development. Dialup Internet access rose from 1.8

per 100 inhabitants in 1998 to 13.7 per 100 inhabitants in the

second quarter of 2005. While this is still relatively low compared to

developed countries, it marks a substantial increase and continues

to grow. Broadband is largely available for very competitive prices in

the cities. Outside the cities, several programmes have been put in

place to help increase broadband penetration, which has grown from

0.08 per cent in 2002 to 1.35 per cent in the second quarter of 2005.

There are various initiatives to help improve access to

communications and ICT. There are two main initiatives in this

regard, one for the rural areas and the other for semi-urban

areas. With regard to access to rural areas, there is an initia-

tive called the Universal Service Programme (USP), which has

the objective of providing access to under-served areas, that is,

areas that have a fixed line telephone penetration rate of 20

per cent below the national average. The current national

average stands at about 17.6 per 100 inhabitants. Priority is

given to collective access to basic phone and internet services

followed by individual access to basic phone and internet

services, which in the future will include access to broadband

services. The USP is funded collectively by contributions from

the licensees in the communications and multimedia sector

with licensees contributing a proportion of their revenues to a

USP Fund administered by MCMC.

Under-served areas are identified by MCMC and these areas are

subsequently tendered out to eligible licensees to make a proposal

to provide USP services. Generally, the lower the amount of subsidy

that the licensee requires with regards to USP service provisioning,

the better the chances of that particular licensee of winning the

tender for the area. Licensees are free to choose whichever tech-

nology they so desire provided that the proposal is cost effective and

sustainable. This is in line with the technology neutrality concept

practiced under the CMA 1998.

For the semi-urban areas, MCMC initiated the Community

Communications Development Programme (CCDP). This

programme is aimed at areas which fall between the urban areas,

which are generally commercially attractive and the rural areas

which are covered by the USP programme. The concept of the

CCDP brings together the various stakeholders, namely govern-

ment, the private sector and the user and community groups

together to increase broadband penetration. It is essentially the

creation of local community cybercafes or

Kedai dot Kom

(Dot Com

Shops) in areas where the community congregates such as sundry

shops or community centres. A large part of the effort to set up

and identify suitable locations for the

Kedai dot Kom

is carried out

by the local community in partnership with other stakeholders.

The programme is fully funded by the MCMC and covers the

initial set up costs of communications access facilities and is

intended to help narrow the digital divide that currently exists.

The CCDP is intended to have a positive socio-economic impact

on the community and is designed to be a platform for capacity

building of current and future initiatives via community access

to communications and network services and network facilities.

A main feature of the capacity building element of the CCDP

is to enable communities in semi-urban areas to acquire skills,

knowledge and experience through the use of communications

and multimedia facilities; to connect these communities to the

knowledge economy and help them acquire new skills in the use

of technology; and to improve information access and opportu-

nity for socio-economic development.

The main focus areas of the CCDP is an active community base

with limited communications access and areas which have exist-

ing cottage industries or activities which can benefit from

communication access.

As mentioned above, the CCDP brings together various stake-

holders, namely the MCMC which provides start up funding and

appoints the service provider, the State Economic Planning Unit

or other relevant local government agency to coordinate infor-

mation gathering of sites identified by district offices, the Village

Development and Security Committee which also assists the state

departments to identify suitable sites for the CCDP, the operator

of the

Kedai dot Kom

, and the service provider who supplies the

communications access, computers and telephones as well as

enrichment programmes for the CCDP project.

The basic elements of the

Kedai dot Kom

are the availability of

an initial number of five PCs with high speed internet access, two

public phones. This Kedai dot Kom is operated by a local entre-

preneur and owned by the local community and is supplemented

with an enrichment programme which includes the creation of a

community website which profiles the local community and the

products that the community might be producing.

Notwithstanding the comprehensiveness of the CCDP initia-

tive there remain several challenges, namely, the requirement

to bring all stakeholders together and to conduct meetings and

briefings to every state government and to get timely feedback

on potential CCDP sites. Other challenges include getting

committed and good entrepreneurs and the time taken to train

the entrepreneurs as well as ensuring smooth roll out from the

service provider.

The two programmes mentioned are but only a few of the

plethora of programmes and initiatives undertaken by the

government together with the private sector and user and commu-

nity groups. Only time will tell as to the effectiveness of such

initiatives, but based on the ITU Digital Access Index study done

in 2002, it does appear that Malaysia may be on-track as regards

its initiatives to bridge the digital divide.

[

] 40

ITU Digital Access Index (DAI), 2002

Top 5 in developed Asia-Pacific

Rank

Overall

Economy

DAI

Korea (Rep)

0.82

Hong Kong, China

0.79

Taiwan (China)

0.79

Singapore

0.75

Japan

0.75

Top 5 in developing Asia-Pacific

Rank

Overall

Economy

DAI

Malaysia

0.57

Brunei Darussalam 0.55

Thailand

0.48

China

0.43

Fiji

0.43