KUALA LUMPUR: Fighting rising food prices and solving agriculture sector problems using information technology (IT) has become Malaysia’s goal in its bid to be a more IT-oriented nation.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Malaysia would soon be using smartcard technology to better manage and facilitate the dissemination of subsidies to agriculture workers.
“We have, for a few years now, been working on ICT-based solutions to solve certain problems and bottlenecks that we face along the agriculture supply chain,’’ he said.
“One such solution is a technology that makes available real-time market information to far-
mers, fishermen and smallholders through the Internet,” he added when making his speech before opening the 16th World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT 2008) here yesterday.
He added that Malaysia’s National Broadband Initiative will also be launched soon.
“Under this initiative, broadband services will be expanded to reach 50% of Malaysian households by the year 2010, a sharp increase from 15.5% last year.
“Fast access to the Internet is no longer a luxury. It is increasingly becoming a necessity,” he said.
Abdullah said ICT had indeed played “a crucial role” in helping to raise the efficiency and competitiveness of Malaysia.
“I am pleased to note that in the ‘World Competitive Report’ released only last week, Malaysia had ranked as the 19th most competitive economy in the world, surpassing even giants like the United Kingdom and South Korea.
“This is a vast improvement from our 23rd position last year,” he said, adding that Malaysia’s Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) was now home to more than 2,000 companies.
At a later event, Abdullah also launched the MSC Malaysia Sarawak Initiative in conjunction with the WCIT.
by ELIZABETH LOOI (the star)
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