Malaysian officials discuss ways to harness IT for growth

Kuala Lumpur, Feb 25 (Asia Pulse) - The new economic framework, in which knowledge is increasingly recognised as a vital source of economic growth, determinant of wealth and basis of competitive advantage, was discussed Thursday at the 9th meeting held by the National Information Technology Council (NITC).

Those in attendance included 21 NITC council members and several industry experts. Chaired by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the council members deliberated on issues and challenges pertaining to the shift in the K-economy, in particular on how to harness the embedded knowledge to enhance the value chain and help achieve Malaysia's vision of becoming an information rich and value based society by 2020.

The meeting also positioned the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) and the National IT Agenda (NITA) as excellent start-ups to drive and develop a good framework to guide Malaysia's transition to the knowledge economy.

In a statement, NITC said Malaysia had a window of opportunity to position itself since the K-economy was only just emerging and its transition might not be smooth sailing. The meeting today elaborated on a new strategy to enable the Malaysian economy to move closer to its goals of harnessing knowledge as a commodity to be exchanged and to be used to create new value. As knowledge-based products and services became the dominant force of commerce, knowledge itself would also emerge as the new currency in the Malaysian economy.

The NITC had set up a K-economy work research group that was entrusted with the task of identifying and developing K-economy measures to monitor and gauge Malaysia's progress in this area. At Thursday's meeting, the NITC also announced the admission of two new members, Education Minister Musa Mohamad and Paul Low, vice president of the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers.