Malaysia shines in 2016 ICT development index: Salleh

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: Malaysia climbed five places in the global ranking of the ICT Development Index (IDI) 2016, ranking second in Southeast Asia, eighth in the Asia Pacific and 61st globally out of 175 economies, said Malaysian Minister of Communications and Multimedia Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak (pix).
"The improved ranking saw an increase of 10.3% of the IDI value from 5.64 to 6.22. This is very encouraging for Malaysia and proves that the government is on the right track in preparing Malaysia for the connected economy," he said.
Salleh said this when commenting on the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) annual "Measuring the Information Society Report" (MIS2016) on the sidelines of the two-day 16th Asean Telecommunication and IT Ministers Meeting (16th Asean TELMIN) that kicked off here today.
The report was released at the 14th World Telecommunication ICT Indicators Symposium in Gaborone, Botswana on Nov 22.
The report has classified Malaysia as one of the five most dynamic countries with strong improvements in IDI value and among the top 10 in the IDI ranking.
Malaysia was ranked 2nd after Singapore in Southeast Asia and maintained its 8th place in the Asia-Pacific region.
According to Dr Salleh, the significant improvement was attributed primarily to the increase in mobile-broadband subscriptions which was supported by improvements in the proportion of individuals using the Internet as well as households with access to computers and the Internet.
"Moving forward, we aim to improve Malaysia's future ranking in the IDI by another five places next year and to be in the top 30 (globally) by the end of the RMK-11 (10th Malaysia Plan which ends in 2020) through various initiatives to encourage access and use of Internet especially on the fixed broadband network," said the Minister.
According to the report, Malaysia recorded a high value for mobile-cellular subscriptions but a much lower value for fixed telephone subscriptions found in developed countries and high-income developing countries.
Malaysia also achieved a substantially higher value in the ICT usage sub-index, increasing 1.23 points to 5.86 over the year. On the other hand, the value for the ICT skills sub-index remained unchanged at 5.87 during the same period.
The IDI is the core feature of the annual MIS report and it is a benchmark of the level of ICT development in economies around the world. The IDI combines eleven indicators on ICT access, use and skills, capturing key aspects of ICT development in one measure that allows for comparisons across countries and over
time.
The Republic of Korea was ranked 1st with an IDI value of 8.84 for two consecutive years.
Salleh added that he was pleased with the significant achievements of Malaysia in ICT development over the past 12 months. — Bernama