1.1 Preamble
In this Information Age, the great distances between the nations on this
planet have shrunk tremendously, transforming the world into a global village.
The ability to acquire and exchange information is becoming a public essential
for the developed nations, whose governments have begun to strategise on
concerting efforts towards building a focused information infrastructure.
Although the private sector (both local and foreign) will eventually construct the components of Malaysia’s information infrastructure, the lack of a nationally focused strategy will imperil its development with false-starts, “white elephants”, and the slow organic growth experienced by the developed countries prior to this new era.
The time to act on such a strategy is now, and the proposed National Information Grid (NIG) would be a central component of our national information infrastructure strategy. Its development as a central component of the information infrastructure will present an opportunity for all parties involved to work together towards attaining a national goal. But equally important, such concerted efforts will streamline the usage of Malaysia’s limited resources in constructing an information infrastructure and to catch up globally within the limited time that we have to achieve Vision 2020.
This document presents a preliminary proposal of the NIG concept, the business environment in which it will be implemented, the need to have a planned strategy for its construction, the benefits it will bring to the country, and not least, a proposed outline of a step-by-step implementation plan.