BN Manifesto: Continuing efforts to close digital divide between urban, rural areas




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KUALA TERENGGANU, April 8 (Bernama) -- The digital divide between urban and rural communities will be reduced through various efforts by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government which is making efforts towards creating a digital administration.

This is one of the promises of the BN government in its manifesto themed 'With BN for A Greater Malaysia' for the 14th General Election (GE14) launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak last night.

Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Jailani Johari said the government had provided various development and infrastructural amenities including telecommunications towers, fibre networks, the 1Malaysia Internet Centres (PI 1M) and WiFi connections in rural areas to ensure that the public had access to them wherever they are.

"This has led to positive changes for the people in rural and interior areas. It is part of the agenda to reduce the digital gap between urban and rural areas. Initially, the focus was on communication infrastructure and service. Then it was the National Broadband Plan which was launched in 2008 which focused on wider broadband coverage and service.

"The objective of the 11th Malaysia Plan is to get broadband network of 20 Mbps in 50 per cent of the interior areas.

"Through these efforts, we have achieved household broadband penetration of 85 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year. Our target is to get 95 per cent broadband coverage in inhabited areas by the year 2020," he told Bernama when contacted here today.

He added that through the BN manifesto, efforts to provide a PI1M in every state constituency would be intensified.

"So far, 848 PI1M has been set up and operating in the country with 63 in Terengganu. With these PI1M, the people have learnt the uses of ICT and online entrepreneurship.

"This will improve their socio-economic status by marketing their products and services online, in line with the government's pledge in the manifesto to create one million digital entrepreneurs within the next five years.

"Their products have been marketed throughout the country and some have even gone overseas, This is in line with the digital economy that the government is promoting," he said.

-- BERNAMA