Market accessibility major issue for local ICT firms

CYBERJAYA: One of the biggest challenges to developing a Malaysian information and communications technology (ICT) global giant is market accessibility, according to Multimedia Development Corp Sdn Bhd (MDeC) vice-president of industry development division Saifol Shamlan.

“There are currently about 1,300 active companies with MSC status in the country and MDeC receives 500 to 600 applications every year but there is no ICT giant from Malaysia,” he told StarBiz in a recent interview.

MDeC is mandated by the Government to coordinate, promote and develop the ICT industry through proposals on IT legislation and policies, establishing specific practices and constructing world-class standards for information infrastructure and urban development.

While the ICT sector has increased in capacity over the last decade, it still has much room for growth as contribution from this segment to the country’s gross domestic product is only over 9%.

Saifol said market accessibility was limited by financials as the development of world-class products and bringing them to the global market was an expensive affair.

For example, the cost of setting up offices overseas for an American small and medium enterprise (SME) is about US$500,000, or less than RM2mil, which is not significant on revenue of US$2mil.

But for the Malaysian SME, the same foreign outfit set-up will require US$2mil, or almost RM8mil, which means the SME would have to generate at least RM10mil in sales.

“It’s a substantial amount when the cost is viewed as a percentage of revenue,” Saifol said, adding that many local SMEs were crowded at the border, with no financial stamina to penetrate the world market.

Furthermore, the US population was much larger, hence domestic demand could sustain the enterpreneurs, he said.

There is also the issue of digital divide among SMEs as they lack the structure that large corporations have in terms of the financial capacity, system and processes that will enhance operations and performances.

“SMEs are not leveraging enough on ICT for market research and to improve cost efficiency. Only 25% of SMEs in the country own a server and 11% of SMEs have some form of e-commerce,” Saifol said.

Most entrepreneurs find the investment cost difficult to justify against profitability. Such issue, nonetheless, is not limited to Malaysia alone as many countries, including the United State, face similar challenge.

MDeC helps facilitate the process by organising road shows, workshops and trainings for networking and skills building, as well as provides funds for start-ups.

For example, it has given out 240 pre-seed funds, which amounted to RM150,000 each, to help entrepreneurs bring their ideas from the drawing board to prototypes.

“The allocation is not enough and we need to attract private investors to support the sector,” Saifol said.

To reduce cost, MDEC encourages companies to collaborate with local universities on research and development, or to use “cloud computing”, which refers to virtual server for businesses to expand without having to set up their own infrastructure.

“Malaysia can be a base for cloud computing since the ones used by Malaysians currently are mainly from the region, like South Korea,” Saifol said.

The country was conducive for innovations, given its multi-racial and multi-cultural facet. “Ideas are ample but it costs money and time to develop them into world-class products or services,” he said.

MDeC promotes several areas such as creative multimedia, software and e-solutions, shared services outsourcing (SSO) and bioinformatics.

Saifol said creative multimedia was easier to bring abroad as the development cost was lower.

Malaysia differentiates its SSO from other outsourcing markets by offering services on the higher value chain such as multi-lingual call centres for corporations.

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ISSUES: Desperately seeking IT grads

By SHARIFAH ARFAH | sarfah@nst.com.my

MOHD Syamil Afiq Mohd Fadzil has been playing computer games since primary school.

So, choosing a career related to Information Technology (IT) was a natural progression for him.
 “I enjoyed being around the computer and playing with it, which is why I wanted to find work that is connected to computing,” says the 24-year-old, who graduated this year with a Diploma in Information Technology from Kuala Lumpur Infrastructure  University College.

Judging by recent statistics, Malaysia certainly needs more young people like Mohd Syamil Afiq to fill vacancies in Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
The MSC Malaysia Talent Supply Demand Study 2010-2013 — Final Report reveals that the number of IT graduates has declined by 0.6 per cent and will not be enough to meet industry’s demand next year.
The problem stems from a mismatch between the number of available IT graduates and what industry really needs, says Rototype International chief executive officer
Harres Tan.

If this persists, vendors will not hesitate to “scale down (their) business or move to where the talents are”.
Tan, who is also an adviser to the National ICT Association of Malaysia (Pikom), said this at the recent launch of the Industry Advisory Board (IAB) of HELP University’s Department of Information Technology.
IAB members comprise senior industrialists, IT professionals and academics.

Chaired by Tan, the board was established to strengthen ties with industry and ensure that IT programmes offered at the university arm students with relevant skills.
HELP University vice chancellor and president Datuk Paul Chan Tuck Hoong says the launch “would facilitate linkages between the institution and industry to provide internships for undergraduates and graduates, and expose students to entrepreneurial projects”.

The ICT industry is one of the fastest growing segments of Malaysia’s economy.

According to Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), the sector is likely to grow at an average annual rate of 10 per cent, creating some 160,000 ICT jobs by 2015.
As Muhammad Imran Kunalan Abdullah, MDeC general manager (Head of Talent), puts it: “Having enough employable IT graduates is crucial for industry, so the notion (that it is hard for IT graduates to get jobs) is untrue.”
Yet he cautions that the high demand for IT graduates does not mean that every student with the qualification will find jobs.
“We need to find out if they are of quality or not,” says Muhammad Imran.  To be employed, IT graduates must be adept in 10 skill clusters, among which are software development, database and networking and security.
“Each has different sub-skill sets. It is a fast-moving industry where what is required now can become obsolete after a few years,” he adds.
The lack of interest in IT among secondary schoolchildren is a worrying trend.

The MSC Malaysia report showed a decline of 11 per cent in the number of students pursuing the subject at tertiary level.
This is not surprising as out of 100 teens who attended MDeC’s ICT boot camp, only five showed interest in such careers.
Satish Ganesh, for one, seems unfazed by the fact that he stands to earn a starting salary of more than RM2,000 a month as an IT
graduate.

His short stint in IT during the long school holidays three years ago did not develop into a passion for the field.

“It was a part-time job troubleshooting minor computer problems at a transport company,” says the fifth-former.
“Getting the job was a coincidence because my friend alerted me to the vacancy and I wanted to fill my time during the break,” adds Satish, who spends an average of four hours a day online checking his emails and Facebook account as well as reading about wildlife.

He did consider an IT-related career for a while but lost interest in the idea when he joined the Junior Cadet uniformed body in school.
“I love the discipline and order of the uniformed body and I’m aiming for a career in that direction,”
he adds.
 Muhammad Imran is not surprised by Satish’s change of heart.

“Everyone is an expert at using technology at that age. It is already a part and parcel of their life, so they don’t see the difference between being a user and a producer,” he says.
 IAB co-chairman Ganesh Kumar Bangah says that the board can concentrate on “getting students to dream of building a future company like Apple or Google in Malaysia”.
“Social content e-commerce is not well recognised compared to pure software development (in Malaysia) but it is growing fast and students can tap into this,” he adds.

He cites the example of social games services developer Zynga, which produces Facebook game applications such as FarmVille and has 240 million users on the social networking site.
The company is now worth about US$15 billion (RM45 billion).

Ganesh is confident that those who take advantage of the social content market will enjoy good pay.

“(Social content e-commerce) is consumer-driven, so a company (involved in this) can grow exponentially,” says Ganesh.

IT course providers must ensure their curriculum is up to date, if more Malaysians were to become social content producers, says Tan.

“By collaborating with the board, HELP University will be able to keep its teaching staff and students up to speed on the developments within the IT industry.
“IT is still one of the most financially rewarding careers and its graduates are still very much in demand, provided they have the right skill set,” he adds.

ICT Issues in Malaysia

ICT Issues in Malaysia

Author: Michael Chua

Nowadays, globalization and digital convergence in the emerging knowledge society has raised complex ethical, legal and societal issues. So that, we are faced with the complex questions regarding the freedom of access to information, freedom of expression, the right to privacy, intellectual property rights, and cultural diversity. ICT exist as an instrumental need of all humans for gathering of knowledge and information, and as such should be guaranteed as a basic to all human beings. Information technology is impacting all walks of life all over the world. However, the rapid development of ICT globally also has led the growth of new forms of national and transnational crimes such as the digital divide, cybercrime, digital security and privacy concerns, all of which have affected people’s lives either directly or indirectly.

In general, ethics is a moral philosophy where a person makes a specific moral choice and sticks to it. ICT ethics are not exceptional from the general view of ethics, but, it means moral guidelines to refer when using the computer and computer networks such as internet. In a world where information and communication technology has come to define how people live and work, and has critically affected culture and values, it is important for us to review ethical issues, as well as social responsibility.

So, there exist so many ICT ethical issues nowadays. Such ethical issues included unemployment issues, crime issues, loss of privacy, intellectual property issues, digital divide issues, professional ethics issues and etc. ICT assists and extends the ability of mankind to capture, process, store, understand, use, create, and disseminate information at the speed and scale which never thought possible before. Some of the changes and impacts of ICT are obvious, but many are subtle.

For the unemployment issues, that is the automation of work has caused creative destruction by eliminating some vocations and creating new ones. Such as the rapid development of artificial intelligent, it result the employment rate of a nation keep decreasing. It is because the artificial intelligent also can do tasks which a normal person can do. For the crime issues, as an example, the stolen and counterfeit ATM cards are used to steal millions of dollars each year throughout the region. The anonymity of the machines makes some crimes easier and creates many new types of crimes. Besides that, some transactions are transmitted and recorded in databases at hospitals, banks, various organization which in the private or public sector. If they are not securely guarded, the contents of electronic communication and databases which provide important and private information will easily stolen by unauthorized individuals and organizations and this will cause the loss of privacy issues. As an example, the nowadays popular social website “Facebook”. We edited so much data into the databases of Facebook,, and try imagine if our accounts get stole by someone and Facebook has announced it will shared our data with other organizations.

As a conclusion, the rapid development of ICT brings many benefits and also issues for us. What we can do is try to overcome such ICT issues challenges. I hope that, everyone can use the technology in the good ways by not produced such much ICT issues to this world. 

About My MGT300 Lecturer, Tuan Syed...

Assalamualaikum everyone...! Now in this post I want to story2 about my MGT300 lecturer. His name is Tuan Syed Mazlan Syed Mat Dom. Actually, this semester is my first time study with him. He was a very kind-hearted person, like to make us laughing, and very sporting person. Furthermore, he is also a simple person and not  fierce. Then, during his class, I feel very relax and feel sooo happening...He is a tall person and his appearance look very samrt and handsome..hehe (sincerely from my honest heart ).. Then, the way he teaches is also okay and easy for me to understand. I think for now I have gain many input and information from him. Emm,, okay I think that all about him..Conclusion is Tuan Syed is the best !! : ))

...A Little Bit About Me...

  Hiiii,,my full name is Nur Fatin Shahirah Binti Ali and already 20 yrs old on 27 june. U all can call me faten.I lived at Tmn Daya, Jb. I only have 3 siblings including me and all of us are girls. Quite boring jgk la coz have no brother. But its ok..Then, I have a beautiful mom who is a housewife and a responsible father which I really adore. My father had already retired from his job and now bekerja sendiri..Saya ni orangnye kecik2 je maybe ikut my mom coz my mom kck jgk.. Okay... actually I am little bit shy person. But, I will try to throw away this habit slowly sb habit pemalu ni xbgos coz ssh nk berhadapan ngan public t...Lagi apa ek?? Haaa.. I really love cats and therefore I ada bela seekor kucing baka turkish angora yg sgt comel, kuat tido, kuat makan but nakal yg teramat..hehe.. Stop smpai sini dulu t sambung cite ag k.. : ))

First Task from Tuan Syed...

Buat blog?? For the first time kot wat blog. Pening la jgk mase nk buatnye coz mmg zero abis experience pasal blog2 ni..Tengok2 blog org len pon jarang..huhu. But, kite x leh give up.. Just do and follow the flow.Wat slow2 akhirnye success gak.Alhamdulilah. : ) hehehe..Oppss,lupe plak nk say thank you kat kwn2 yg menolong. Thanks korang..Luv u lah..Emm, harap2 berjalan lancar lah next task selepas nihh..