KUALA LUMPUR -- The Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) has progressed far ahead of the target set for it, said Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad Monday.
"We see a bright future for information technology in Malaysia and we are sure the MSC will be a success," he said in his speech when launching NTT MSC SDN BHD's Arcnet services.
MSC is a 750-sq.km zone south of Kuala Lumpur designated as a hub for the development of multimedia products and services.
Foreign companies will find the MSC as a useful center to conduct research and operate from as well for testing their products, he added.
Arcnet, a trademark of NTT MSC, was locally developed in Cyberjaya and offers a full range of Internet access services and electronic business solutions to multinational corporations, small and medium enterprises as well as individuals.
Dr. Mahathir said Malaysia owed a lot to NTT Communications Corp (the parent company of NTT MSC) which is one of the strongest supporter of the MSC project.
NTT communications were among the early birds that came to the MSC to start up their office and research and development center in Cberjaya.
These gestures and actions of NTT have encouraged other world renowned companies to come to Malaysia.
Dr. Mahathir also said big companies which have the ability to do research must come up with solutions that can make it easier for businesses to facilitate the application of information technology.
"We are seeing more and more of these, and in Malaysia we have given out licenses for these kind of solution providers," he said.
The prime minister said NTT is among the first foreign companies to receive this license and the development of Arcnet will help Malaysian businesses to do much better than ever before.
He added that although Internet usage in Malaysia was not big enough at the moment, the goals was quite high - doubling almost every year.
In 1996, Dr. Mahathir said there were 90,000 Internet users in Malaysia but today this figure has grown to over one million users.
"I am quite sure with this rate of growth, any company providing the required services would be able to reap a rich harvest," he added.
Speaking at a press conference later, Dr. Mahathir said there were some spin offs emanating from the MSC as there were some local companies that have contributed to the development of information technology usage.
They have also developed systems that could be applied in Malaysia, he added.
At present, there are many incubators in the MSC which has succeeded in inventing a variety of software and solutions, including those which are suitable for business applications.