Malaysian Granted With New ICT Security Accreditation

Malaysia has become the first country in Southeast Asia and developing countries to be accepted as a Common Criteria Recognition Arrangement (CCRA) Authorising Participant member. Having joined a group of only 15 countries worldwide, Cybersecurity Malaysia can now issue Common Criteria (ISO15408) certificates on ICT products.
The Common Criteria evaluation provides an independent check and verification of ICT products security against a shared set of criteria. Products which satisfy this criteria and are awarded the ISO certification will be jointly recognised by the full 26 member countries of the CCRA.
“With this recognition, Malaysia has proven its capabilities to the world in the field of information security.” Said Dag Ströman, Chairman of Common Criteria Management Committee, “This would further bolster Malaysia’s competitiveness in quality assurance of information security based on the Common Criteria standard and build end-user confidence towards Malaysian information security solutions,”
The new Common Criteria authorising member status is expected to boost Malaysia’s already growing ICT security services industry, which is estimated to reach RM400 million (US$126 million) by the year 2014.

http://www.futuregov.asia/articles/2011/oct/07/malaysia-granted-new-ict-security-accreditation/

by Richard Pain

Malaysian ICT to Grow as Economy Recovers, says Minister

Malaysia’s information and communications technology (ICT) sector could grow by 7% if economic recovery and business confidence continues, says Malaysia’s Science, Technology and Information Minister Dr Maximus Johnity Ongkili. ICT contributed as much as RM48 billion (US$15.8 billion) or 10% of Malaysia’s GDP in 2007, but only RM40 billion ($13.2 billion) last year.
Before the financial crisis ICT in Malaysia had been projected to grow 10% per year, one of Asia’s fastest, he said.
Ongkili made his comments at Mimos, a major R&D center for ‘frontier technologies’ and advisor to the Malaysian government, which focuses on technology that can be commercialized for growth. Mimos yesterday held a ceremony to transfer technology platforms to three local companies to be developed for market by the private sector: Jaring Communications Sdn Bhd, Mutiara.com and Smart Computing Sdn Bhd.
Six other Malaysian companies also signed deals to licence and develop Mimos’ technology: Disability Solutions Sdn Bhd, Alam Teknokrat Sdn Bhd, Innovision Business Solutions Sdn Bhd, Phytofolia Sdn Bhd, Quantum Beez Sdn Bhd and Fabtronic Sdn Bhd.
131 ‘WiFi Villages’ for Sandakan
Meanwhile, in Malaysia’s far eastern city of Sandakan, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said it was halfway through a project to provide minimal-charge wireless internet access to 131 area villages, enabling urban and rural populations equal access to online services. MCMC has also distributed 49,800 netbooks to students in Sabah province on Borneo under the 1Malaysia project.

http://www.newasianist.com/malaysian-ict-to-grow-as-economy-recovers-says-minister/ 

sources and articles:The Star Online, Mimos

ICT in Education Toolkit Debuts in Malaysia

Week-long National Capacity Building Seminar Using the Online ICT in Education Toolkit for Policymakers, Planners and Practitioners assists in on-going national planning process for ICT use in education.

A group of 45 policymakers and planners from the Ministry of Education in Malaysia, together with representatives from the School of Educational Studies at the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), recently gathered together at the Paradise Sandy Bay Resort in Penang to initiate use of the ICT in Education Toolkit as part of its on-going national planning process for ICT use in education.

The week-long National Capacity Building Seminar Using the Online ICT in Education Toolkit for Policymakers, Planners and Practitioners , co-sponsored by the Ministry of Education, USM and the UNESCO Regional Office for Education (Bangkok), opened with an address by Dato' Hon Choon Kim, Deputy Minister of Education, which stressed that the widespread use of ICT's in Malaysian schools is just a tool to achieve larger educational goals and objectives, designed to help the nation achieve developed country status by 2020.

The ICT in Education Toolkit for Policymakers, Planners and Practitioners, jointly supported and developed by infoDev, UNESCO and other partners, is designed to assist education policy makers, planners and practitioners in the process of harnessing the potential of ICTs to meet educational goals and targets efficiently and effectively. It includes particular attention to the following key areas:

Mapping the present situation in terms of national goals, educational context, ICTs in education, and the dynamics of change

Identifying educational areas for ICT intervention and formulating corresponding ICT-in-education policies

Planning for implementation of infrastructure, hardware, contentware, and personnel training

Planning for electronic content

Consolidating implementation plans and their financial and managerial implications into one master plan

Assessing implementation, effectiveness and impact of ICT interventions and subsequent adjustments and follow-up actions

Malaysia is the third country to use version 2.0 of the Toolkit, following on recent launches in Indonesia (May) and Brunei (June).  These workshops were coordinated by UNESCO's Regional Office for Education in Bangkok, which will be supporting additional country planning workshops in Asia using the Toolkit through the end of 2007.  Version 2.0 of the Toolkit was jointly launched by infoDev and UNESCO in April 2007 as part of a larger partnership between the two organizations exploring the effective use of ICTs in education around the world.

Malaysia has actively promoted the integration of ICTs into its education system to achieve a variety of educational objectives, and is considered a regional leader in the implementation of computers and the Internet in schools.

http://www.infodev.org/en/Article.117.html

ICT Education For a “Creative Society”

Malaysia Higher Education Ministry is studying how to develop a creative and innovative Malaysian society through human capital development.

Its minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the study to produce creative, innovative human capital was started last year by the Malaysian Invention and Design Society (MINDS), Universiti Teknologi Mara and Malaysian Design Council. This study will be looking at programmes by government agencies that could contribute to the creation of “innovative human capital”.The ministry is planning to work with Microsoft in unearthing creative and innovative students of tertiary institutions in the area of ICT and with Shell Malaysia in energy saving.

“We hope when the study is completed, expected this year, we will be able to draw up a national blueprint in this context,” he said. “Malaysia wants to move away from a resource-based economy to one generated by innovations with the existence of an innovative society, which will indicate that the country has reached developed-nation status,” he said.

Nordin said creativity and innovations were vital for a country and studies had shown that technological innovations contributed to higher productivity, Gross Domestic Product, economic growth and improved standard of living.

http://www.futuregov.asia/articles/2009/may/12/malaysia-banks-ict-education-creative-society/

by  Alice Kok | 12 May 2009

ICT Empowering Citizens of Malaysia

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.

http://www.i4donline.net/articles/current-article.asp?articleid=987&typ=Features

by Upasna Kakroo
 Senior Research Associate
csdms
mailto:upasna@csdms.in