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Roundup of Malaysian IT News KUALA LUMPUR (Islam Online) - Malaysia's Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) is trying to put up a strong challenge on the eve of rising competition from regional IT hubs Singapore and Hong Kong, with Indonesia recently joining the fray. To achieve its dreams of superseding the competitors and becoming the no. 1 IT hub of the Asean region, Malaysia is promoting mergers between local, international and transnational firms. The effort to internationalize the MSC has sometimes fallen on deaf ears. Irrespective of this, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad keeps firm conviction in his efforts to challenge the greatest competitors of this region. Many of the promises made by foreign investors have not materialized, putting the development of Malaysia's MSC into the red and slowing down its progress. Most of these promises have come from the United States, including Bill Gates of Microsoft. The 1997 Asian economic meltdown following the currency crash, the Anwar Ibrahim issue, "Reformasi" in the streets of Kuala Lumpur, economic policies implemented to curb the outflow of capital, the pegging of the Malaysian ringgit to the U.S. dollar, and most recently, the elections have put a halt to the MSC altogether. However, things are moving in the right direction now, Islam Online was told. "Better late than never," said Jason Cheung, whose company is applying for MSC status. Othman Yeop, executive chairman of the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC), said the government had so far approved 264 companies for MSC status. Among those companies approved, 34 were ranked as world-class IT companies. Yeop said the corporation was on schedule to meet its target of attracting more than 50 world-class IT companies by 2003.
Multicast Streaming Among the projects they are working on are @Strongnet, a new satellite-delivered service that would offer high-speed multimedia broadcasting and Internet access services. These services include Multicast File Transfer, Multicast Streaming Delivery and High-Speed Internet Delivery. A Mimos official said during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur that, "This satellite-delivered service will be available to all 250,000 Jaring subscribers as @Strongnet-Jaring."
The @Strongnet-Jaring project will be offered at a special introductory price. Subscribers will need to have a multimedia personal computer, a personal computer interface satellite receiver card to access satellite signals, a receiving satellite dish and a Jaring Internet account. Alternatively, the service will also be available via the Astro digital multimedia terminal (DMT). The DMT is the "set top box" currently used by Astro subscribers to receive television and radio programs and interactive services.
French Input In MSC Team Software Engineering, a joint venture between France's Team Partners Group and Harta Serbaguna, said it would use Malaysia as a platform to penetrate the Asia-Pacific market with its integrated blood transfusion software. CEO Bernard Leng said the company would invest 3.2 million ringgit ($840,000) over the next five years in research and development, particularly in updating the software now being used in more than 30 French blood transfusion centers. The company also plans to promote data processing systems for hospital administrations and smart card systems for the blood services sector.
Maxis Bids Meanwhile, Jamaludin declined to reveal anything further about the bids, saying that there was already a lot of speculation involved and that appropriate announcements would be made when the company was ready for it. However, he did comment on E-billing. Jamaludin said that the system, an alternative mode for customers to view and pay their bills via the Internet, is merely the tip of the iceberg in the "E-nabled world of Maxis." "In future, more and more services, from mobile and fixed lines to Internet access can be registered, delivered, reconfigured and promoted through the net and via various devices," he added. Essentially, he said that "E-nabling Maxis" is transforming Maxis into a full-fledged E-Business company to exploit the Internet to run its business operations and interface with suppliers and partners.
Meanwhile, rumors have it that Bill Gates has shown interest in Maxis, which is run by Binariang, a company which has its own satellite. He is said to be interested in the telecommunication process and the Internet sector. This would be an interesting development for the efforts to compete with other major IT firms
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