Sat, Jul 5 01:05 AM
At the World Conference on Information Technology (WCIT 2008) held in Kuala Lumpur, an interesting ministerial panel discussion featuring the information and communications technology (ICT) ministers of Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Mexico demonstrated how much impact Government IT policy can have on the destinies of nations in the IT industry. In Singapore, 80 pe cent of households now have high-speed Internet connections.
Malaysia has its Multimedia Super Corridor which created the "Cyberjaya" zone for IT industries, and the country is now investing in work-force development to attract firms like Microsoft. Philippines continues to exude its quiet confidence that the availability of high quality accounting talent will enable it to move business process outsourcing (BPO) work away from India while Mexico sees its proximity to the US as its biggest advantage in its own ventures in outsourcing.
And what of India which can legitimately claim to have invented concepts like IT enabled services and Offshore Outsourcing and opened up a vista of new opportunity to young people in all emerging countries? Communications IT Minister Raja in a well articulated session at the conference enlightened the audience about the Government's initiatives in connecting all academic institutions to foster joint research and admitted that the proliferation of broadband in the country was still weak in comparison to some of the erstwhile Asian tigers like Singapore and Malaysia. The good news is that technologies that enable collaboration and innovation are being invented at a faster pace than ever which is good news for all participating firms and countries.
Former Intel chairman Craig Barrett in person and Bill Gates through a holographic projection offered enough new technology ideas at the WCIT conference to more than 3,000 delegates from 90 countries. Intel's Classroom PC which is already changing the outlook of millions of young learners in all parts of the world and Microsoft's new Surface technology which will put image and artefact manipulation and transfer literally at our fingertips in the near future open up vistas of opportunities to enable the digital revolution to embrace all citizens of the planet.
It will need progressive partnerships between government, academia and ICT entrepreneurs to create new applications for businesses and communities in the years to come.
If you are young, have a hectic social life where you drink and party, and have applied for a job, chances are you will lose out to someone who is a teetotaler.
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