National Information Grid - Implementation : 6.5

6.5 Geographical Roll-out

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6.5.1 Klang Valley Economic Region
6.5.2 Regional Economic Hubs
6.5.3 Rest of Malaysia

For every phase of application development described above, it may not be feasible for each phase to be implemented nationwide in a “big-bang” manner. Therefore, it is recommend that implementation takes place in stages as shown in Figure 6-2 below. This aspect of implementation refers to the installation of physical components and software to support each new application.

6.5.1 Klang Valley Economic Region

The implementation of any NIG service should begin in the Klang Valley Economic Region (KVER) which includes:

Kuala Lumpur and surrounding areas
Petaling Jaya
Subang Jaya and Shah Alam
Kelang
Putra Jaya government centre in Prang Besar
Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Sepang

The KVER is the country’s centre of government, population concentration and international commerce. Therefore, it should have priority over other areas because of the following attributes:

Largest concentration of working population
Highest proportion of affluent population
Financial centre of Malaysia
Commercial centre of Malaysia for both local and international companies
Main international gateway into Malaysia
Main shipping hub for Malaysia (especially after Kelang’s Westport is completed)
Large and modern government complex (Putra Jaya)
Telecommunications hub of Malaysia

Figure 6-2. Geographical expansion phases of the NIG’s implementation. (View larger version: 73k.)

With the above attributes, this region presents the best conditions for the NIG to begin operating. With the growing importance of multimedia, the KVER can be the national multimedia testbed for the NIG, making it a Multimedia Belt that supports the demands of international business and perhaps giving birth to a regional multimedia industry hub, keeping Malaysia ahead in this new and strategic industry.

6.5.2 Regional Economic Hubs

The areas that follow the KVER in an NIG implementation roll-out should be the regional economic hubs, which are cities and towns that support Malaysia’s main economic production output and international trade relations. These areas include:-

Penang for its high-technology manufacturing and port facilities.
Ipoh for its commerce, manufacturing and natural resources-based industry.
Kuantan and Johore Bahru for their shipping and import / export facilities.
Kota Kinabalu and Kuching as East Malaysia’s population centres and their natural resources-based industries.
Labuan for its International Offshore Financial Centre.

6.5.3 Rest of Malaysia

The remaining geographical areas in an NIG implementation roll-out would be the towns and cities that have considerable population size, public service and production output as shown in Figure 6-2. These areas will also complete the national coverage of NIG’s Service Regions, providing local NIG access to virtually all users in Malaysia.