50 digital villages by year end — Ismail Sabri

JITRA: The Ministry of Rural and Regional Development (KKLW) targets to implement the vision of popularising the digital economy through the ‘Digital Village’ initiative in 50 villages nationwide with the collaboration of the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (KKMM).

Its Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the first phase of the target saw KKMM approving the initiative in 11 villages nationwide to date while the projects in the remaining 39 villages were expected to be implemented in stages until the end of this year.

“Through this initiative, the rural community can access the free internet facilities within 50 to 100 metres of the Mini Rural Transformation Centres (Mini RTC) and the 1Malaysia Internet Centre (PI1M).

“This is because Internet speed is important to enable rural entrepreneurs to engage in online businesses or digital economy in line with Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s call to popularise the digital economy,” he told reporters after the National Level Digital Village Launching ceremony at the Bemban Mini RTC here yesterday.

The Digital Village programme aims to upgrade rural internet access facilities from the existing speed to the higher speed of 20Mbps in selected villages.

The selection was based on the existence of Mini RTC and PI1M, internet access of at least 3G (third generation) and LTE (Long Term Evolution) and listed as ‘Desa Lestari’ villages under the KKLW programme.

Among the 11 villages that had been approved by KKMM so far to implement the Digital Village initiatives were Kampung Pasir Gajah, Kemaman, Terengganu, Kampung Lubok Sireh, Perlis, Kampung Sungai Itau, Kedah and Kampung Tagudon Baru, Ranau, Sabah.

The village of Bemban near here, located about 30 km from Alor Setar, was chosen as the pilot of the Digital Village programme beginning this year.

Meanwhile, Ismail Sabri said that KKLW targeted to register more than 500 rural entrepreneurs in the online shopping portal 11Street until the end of the year where they could market rural products online through the platform.

“To date, a total of 500 entrepreneurs have been registered under the platform covering 425 products,” he said. - Bernama