M'sia seeks global platform towards empowering all sections of society

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia has called on all countries to work together to build a global platform which is inclusive and geared towards empowering all sections of society in preparation for the new digital era.
Minister of Communications and Multimedia Gobind Singh Deo conveyed the message when attending the ICT Ministerial Meeting 2018, hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT in Seoul, South Korea on Thursday.
He said infrastructure, access and education are key to success in the digital era.
"In all of it, education and infrastructure are key. Ultimately, both education and infrastructure are equally important.
"The best infrastructure would be of little value without education and knowledge of how to utilise it and education and knowledge alone without proper infrastructure will place us nowhere," he said in a statement here yesterday.
Gobind Singh said Malaysia recognised the far-reaching impact of ICT in every sector and that Malaysia was committed to ensuring that access to the Internet was given to everyone so as to ensure that everyone can participate in and take full advantage of the benefits of the 4th Industrial Revolution.
He said there was a need for equality in policies made by governments when dealing with the 4th Industrial Revolution and focus should be to prioritise education and efforts to build infrastructure which provide equal and affordable access to broadband to people across all sectors.
"Malaysia is now moving to recognise "access to the Internet" as a basic human right, hoping to categorise it as a utility on par with other basic necessities which governments need to facilitate such as water and electricity," he said.
He also stressed the importance of regulatory frameworks and that governments must play an important role in regulating and even legislating where necessary to ensure that no sector of society is left behind.
The meeting attended by Ministers and representatives from Malaysia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Bhutan, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, Lao, Vietnam, Philippines and Nepal discussed a broad range of issues and challenges in the digital era with specific reference to the future of digital transformation and digital connectivity for social inclusion. — Bernama