2005 at a glance for IT in Malaysia & World

(Edited from The Star, 29 December 2005)

February

The Government says it has proposals for incentives in the ninth Malaysia plan that encourages more value added activities in ICT. This includes a renewed look at R&D and the shared services and outsourcing sector.

Kedah calls for a wider broadband infrastructure especially in rural areas to attract more investors.

The world’s first cellphone worm, Cabir, is detected in the United States. The worm spreads through Bluetooth and drains the battery on infected phones.

March

The Recycle PC campaign, a joint effort between Pikom and waste management company, Alam Flora, is launched.

Web search giant Yahoo! Inc turns 10.

April

The Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs said special courts are needed for copyright infringement cases as they are always backlogged in other courts.

May

Internet worm Worms_Sober.S, hits 30 countries in half a day.

The Government conducts the first Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) recruitment fair which offered more than 2000 jobs to unemployed ICT graduates.

Celcom becomes the first local telco to launch 3G services in Malaysia.

July

Maxis launches its 3G phone service.

Amazon.com celebrates its 10th anniversary.

August

Oracle launches an RM10mil centre of excellence for e-governance in Cyberjaya, leading the way to develop e-government solutions in the region.

Google stops efforts to scan copyrighted books for Google Print for Libraries, following backlash from the US publication industry.

September

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) begins a study to implement mobile number portability in Malaysia.

The MSC is expanded to include Penang as part of its seven year, second phase of development. The state is declared a “cybercity.”

October

The Government announces a range of measures under Budget 2006 to boost the development of the MSC and the ICT industry including having the MDC work with Permodalan Nasional Bhd and Khazanah to match MSC companies with GLCs that could serve as a test-bed.

Google and Sun Microsystems team up to offer free spreadsheet and wordprocessing software to challenge Microsoft.

Yahoo! and Microsoft forge a partnership to make their instant messenger programs work with each other by June 2006.

December

Malaysia becomes the first South East Asian country to embrace the Creative Commons initiative. Creative Commons enables copyright holders to grant some of their rights to the public while retaining others through a variety of licensing and contract schemes. Its intention is to avoid the problems that current copyright laws create for the sharing of intellectual property.