NEWS: PC penetration rate must double

KUALA LUMPUR: The Government needs to get more Malaysians buying PCs if it wants to achieve a 50% broadband penetration rate by end 2010, said the Association of the Computer and Multimedia Industry of Malaysia (Pikom).

It said that only 35% of the population now have PCs in the home and this needs to double if the broadband penetration — which currently stands at 26% — is to hit the 50% mark next year, a goal of the National Broadband Plan.

“If so many Malaysians don’t have PCs, how do we expect to achieve that broadband target?” said David Wong, Pikom chairman. “(Neighbouring) Singapore, for instance, has more than 90% PC penetration.”

He said a 50% broadband penetration rate in 2010 would add another percentage point to Malaysia’s Gross Domestic Product and would add 135,000 new jobs to the economy.

Wong was delivering his keynote address today at the Pikom Leadership Summit 2009, a conference held in conjunction with National ICT Month 2009. His address was titled: State of the ICT industry: The Way Forward.

How-to list

He said Pikom submitted a proposal last month to the Government on how to boost PC penetration.

Among the steps is a recommendation to bring back the PC ownership scheme that was provided to the people via the Employees Provident Fund years ago. Wong believes that the scheme, if brought back, would account for about 156,000 PCs sold to EPF contributors each year.

The scheme, introduced in 2000 by the Government, allowed a person to withdraw a maximum of RM3,500 from his or her EPF savings to buy a PC. The scheme was withdrawn after two years due to allegations of misuse.

It was reported that about 750,000 EPF contributors made withdrawals under the scheme, which amounted to a total of about RM2.6bil, but 87,000 of those contributors allegedly did not use the money to buy computers.

Wong said more would be done to prevent abuse if the scheme was reintroduced. For example, he said, Pikom could act as a clearing house for the purchases and the PC choices could be limited to machines from branded manufacturers.

Faster, please

He also called for better quality broadband services in the country, especially now that more and more Malaysians are accessing the Internet through notebooks, cellphones and other mobile devices.

“Most telcos advertise speeds of between 1Mbps (megabits per second) and 4Mbps but that is not what customers are getting in reality,” he said.

Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili, who officiated at the launch of the National ICT Month 2009 and leadership summit, said the Government is always looking for ways to improve PC and broadband penetration.

“We are studying Pikom’s proposal,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the event.

Ongkili said the Government also sees another way to encourge more Malaysians to own PCs — by making the computers cheaper.

Mimos, the national applied-research body, has produced its own laptop PC, called the Idola, which will retail for less than RM1,000.

“It should be rolled out very soon; we are finalising the (list of) distributors,” said Ongkili.

Busy month

The National ICT Month 2009 stretches from July 20 to Aug 20 and includes several activities. Among these is The MSC Malaysia Great ICT Sale, which will take place in cyberspace and the real world during the period.

The sale will be held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on July 20 and 21; at the Penang International Sports Arena from Aug 7 to 9; and the Persada Johor International Convention Centre from Aug 14 to 16.

To check out the sale in cyberspace, surf to
www.mscmalaysia.my/greatictsale.

The Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), which organised the sale, has said that small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in the country are more willing now to engage in e-commerce and are seeking out such software and services.

MDeC is caretaker of the MSC Malaysia initiative. It is targeting a modest total of 400 SMEs to come to the sale and it expects about RM5mil in sales of software and services to be racked up by the end of the event.

Among the MSC Malaysia companies offering products are applications and web-hosting solutions provider StarFusion Sdn Bhd; accounting solutions provider MYOB Sdn Bhd; and Exa Bytes Sdn Bhd, which provides web-hosting and domain-name registration solutions.

Campaigns aplenty

Also on the itinerary for the National ICT Month 2009 is Pikom’s Buy Online campaign at mybeli.com. It hopes that RM100mil worth of goods and services will be sold during this campaign and that the sales momentum will continue till year end.

There is also a recycling campaign that seeks to educate consumers on the importance of ensuring that their electronic and electrical equipment do not clog dumpsites and poison the earth.

Pikom’s eWaste campaign will take place in Kuala Lumpur (from July 31 to Aug 2), Penang (Aug 7 to 9) and Ipoh (Aug 14 to 16).

The association will then study the results of this pilot programme, which will help determine the readiness of consumers and logistics infrastructure for a sustainable effort.

It hopes to propose a nationwide implementation of its eWaste programme to the Department of Environment.

Pikom will also be making available its inaugural ICT Strategic Review 2009 Report: ICT Landscape in Malaysia during the month.

It will list the top industry spenders for this year, the positive and negative indicators if the ICT sector, trends in the IT job market, growth forecasts, and ICT spending for the year and beyond.

Pikom spent RM2.5mil on the National ICT Month 2009 and hopes that the event will help increase ICT interest among Malaysian companies. It also wants to make this an annual event.