ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case study of Malaysia’s information and communications technology (ICT) industry development. The Sixth Malaysia Plan (1991–1995) designed the vision to fully develop Malaysia’s economy and to step into the era of a knowledge-based economy and society until 2020. ICT was conceived to enhance the productivity of all industry sectors and to enable the transformation to a high-income and innovation-driven economy. The establishment of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) as an international ICT hub constitutes the central pillar on Malaysia’s path to the information age and digital era (Evers and Gerke, 2015: 118). This case study aims to depict the history of Malaysia’s ICT policies and highlights the MSC’s conception. It concludes that ethnic discrimination is less relevant for the low performance of the country’s ICT capitalists than the lack of skilled human resources and high-class universities (Vicziany and Puteh, 2004). First, the chapter provides an international comparison of Malaysia’s ICT development, and then it highlights Malaysia’s industrial policies toward the sector. It finally comprises an evaluation of the ICT policies.
