Welcoming Speeches of World Congress on Information Technology

Currently, it is on the session by Allied Digital Infonet, where they are putting up a very scientific presentation on the details of their revolutionary wireless breakthrough. I won't be covering it much, as it is way beyond my understanding. The presentation was mainly done by 2 scientists from Ukraine (including one of them who spoke in Ukraine).

Looking back at WCIT since morning, the opening ceremony started with the kids saying welcome to all the delegates. Personally, the initiative is fantastic, but again the implementation is quite bad. First, the kids miss the timing, and then the sequence of the kids being lined up was messed up. This is very embarrassing for Malaysia, and in fact, many of us were shaking our heads when we saw this mess up, in front of thousands of top notch people around the world.

Then, it is the welcoming speeches, where this WCIT would cover delegates from 92 countries that cover 90% of ICT economy and is dubbed as Olympics of IT.

One thing very positive is how the screen looks is very professional, where at certain points, it could be 1 screen, then 2 screens, 3,4,5,6 or even 7 screens.

Back to the speech, currently, there are 4 Billion people living in Asia, with 25% share of economy. And the theme of this congress is to enable businesses, empower societies and enrich economies. Hence, the focus would be in IT, gnemomics, climate change, economics and science.

Regarding our Multimedia Super Corridor, there are now 2,000 MSC-status companies with 65,000 knowledge workers, and this is a great breakthrough after we started it 12 years ago.

George C. Newstorm, Chairman of WITSA gave his welcoming speech after MDeC Chairman. He talked about WCIT being held once every 2 years, eg in Taiwan in 2000, Australia 2 years later. Greece in 2004, US in 2006, and now in Kuala Lumpur. For 2010, Amsterdam would be the host and only yesterday, Montreal was selected to be the host for 2012.

Over the past decade, things have transformed. Mobile phones, internet, pc, laptop etc have transformed. Today, a student in remote school in Malaysia could embark on a virtual trip to have a closer look at Pyramid.

He also announced that he is stepping down as WITSA Chairman after 8 years, and he would be replaced by a Malaysian, Dan E Khoo.

Then, it is Prime Minister's speech. He talked about today, the world has changed. It is no longer the adult that led the children, but it is otherwise. He talked on how the kids are now learning better on technology, and even young kids can now know how to use mobile phone, camera etc.

Today, with the unprecendented acess of information, the tough part is to tackle the digital divide issue. The future poor would be those who are digitally illeterate. MSC Malaysia has progressed a lot, with smart school, high tech passport, smart school etc.

The National Broadband Initiative Target is to have 50% broadband penetration by 2010. And just this week, Wireless@KL has been launched to provide free wireless to everyone in KL for 2 years.

In the recent IMD Competitive ranking, Malaysia has improved from 23rd ranking to 19th ranking, being in front of UK and Korea.

MSC Malaysia has brought in RM13.6 Billion turnover last year, with RM0.8 billion being ploughed back for R&D. Prime Minister's hope is for everyone in WCIT to focus on formulating forward-looking impact to cater for the digital divide impact of ICT.

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Live Blogging from World Congress on Information Technology 2

The 1st half day of presentation has gone by, and now it is Dr. Robert Atkinson, President of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.

He first talked about the Digital economy, where ICT is the major driver of growth in the most developed economy.

Economists have talked about "General Purpose Technologies", and most innovations come incrementally with modest changes over time.

But usually every 50 years or so, there will be major changes of system, that change everything, like how we product, what we product, how we manage production etc.

1890 - Steel that powers the revolution. Then, industrial and then ICT.

Technology system exhausts itself, and since most technology within the old system has been taken advantage of.

Previously, we have the old electro-mechanical technology system from 1930-80, and now is the new ICT system.

GPT have rapid price decline and improve performance. Moore's Law has not slowed down.

Today, free memory is almost everywhere. Microsoft provides 5GB of memory to everyone, and if in 1970s, that would have cost USD100 Million per person.

ICT used to be scarce. Now, 70% of computer chips don't go into computers. Today, it is part into every part of economy and virtually into every economy.

In the next 15 years, there would be self service technology, where it would seem to be customized for each individual, although the cost won't be more than mass production.

Walmart today depends lots on ICT, as well as banking and Amazon etc.

ICT enables innovation in products and services.

ICT does matter to firm and nation, and ICT drives firm profitability. On average, for every dollar a firm in the US invests in ICT, market valuation rises by over $10.

ICT drives nation's productivity and economic growth, and ICT has driven the Total factor productivity growth in US.

In Malaysia, use of ICT had the biggest impact on manufacturing productivity, larger than humna capitals.

On another studies, ICT had significant, positive impacts on productivity, GDP growth and overall stock market values from 1991 to 2002 in various Asian countries.

Major reason for Canada's lagging productivity growth is due to lack of investment in ICT.

Malaysia is ranking no. 1 in ICT contribute to labor productivity. Other nations, like Korea, Ireland and Thailand also fare very well.

ICT capital has 7 times the impact on GDP and productivity than non-ICT capital in nations with lower levels of IT usage and 3 times more in other countries. ICT allows picking up of low hanging fruit of relatively easy to improve efficiencies.

Many nations haven't fully optimized ICT.

The nations should focus on raising productivity across the board through greater use of ICT.

For every 1% drop in ICT price, there is a 1.5% growth in demand. Countries should use tax incentives and tariff reductions to spur ict investment.

Would continue to blog on this later on. Thank you for reading my live blogging from Plenary Hall 1, Kuala Lumpur Convention Center.

This internet speed is definitely by far the best I have used in Malaysia.L


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Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Live Blogging from World Congress on Information Technology

Am doing this live blogging from Plenary Hall 1, Kuala Lumpur Convention Center, for the 16th World Congress On Information Technology (WCIT).

The internet speed here is fantastic! Luckily, it meets the expectation of all the delegates here, which consist predominantly of foreign delegates of who's who in IT industry.

Would love to fully blog the whole day's of talks from here, but the seat does not come equipped with power supply.

Prime Minister would be arriving in 8 minutes and about 2,800 delegates are now sitting in this majestic hall. Seriously, it is really world class here inside this plenary hall.

First of all, would like to thank my supervisor, Wee Khang for giving him this chance of opportunity to attend day 1 of WCIT, courtesy of JobStreet.com

Among today's speakers:-
YAB Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Prime Minister of Malaysia)
Dr. James Poisant (World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) Secretary General
Dato' Dr. Craig Barrett (Chairman of Intel Corporation)
Dr. Robert Bishop (Chairman and Founder, BBWorld Consulting Services Sarl & Advisor, Blue Brain Project
Sha Zukang, Under-Secretary-General, United Nations
Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure, Secretary General, International Telecommunication Union
Steve Felice, President, Dell Asia Pacific/Japan
YB Datuk Dr. Maximus Johnity Ongkili, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Malaysia
HE Dr. Lee Boon Yang, Minister of Information, Communication & Arts, Singapore
HE Liwayway Vinzons-Chato, Member of the House of Representatives, Phillipines
Sergio Carrera Rivapalacio, General Director, Digital Economy & Commerce, Ministry of Economy, Mexico
Jali Tammisto, CEO, Mobile Monday
Dr. Heizo takenaka, Keio University
Dr. Ya-Qin Zhang, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft

And last but not least, William H. Gates, Chairman, Microsoft (Through a special appearance via holographic technology).

Prime Minister has just walked into the hall.

51 children from Sri Cempaka will be speaking 45 languages of welcome the 2,800 delegates from 92 countries.

My live blogging will stop here. Will be back later in the day!

To all my readers, I wish you Selamat Hari Wesak!





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Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

New Entrepreneur Forum

Found this interesting event at Facebook . This could be a good learning for those who can't afford to go for WCIT!

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Netbash is a technopreneur forum event that is hosted by New Entrepreneur Forum (NEF) and supported by 5 Malaysia's Entrepreneur communities.

It serves as a knowledge sharing and networking platform for technoprenuers by bringing in relevant speakers to discuss current issues that affect technopreneurs. NEF believes that via knowledge sharing platforms such as this, the ICT industry can flourish better with new ideas and innovations.

This May 2008, in conjunction with MSC Malaysia WCIT, NEF is taking the opportunity to organize Netbash @ WCIT with the theme – "How To Change The World.

For the first time in Malaysia, Netbash is proud to present Mr Guy Kawasaki, Technology Evangelist, MD of Garage Ventures and author of The Art of the Start, as guest speaker for Netbash @ WCIT.

Joining him also will be speakers such as Terry Thorren, Shinichiro Ishikawa, Mahmoud Bouneb and Collin Wong to share their experiences in Web 2.0 and Creative Content.


Program
1.45pm - 2.00pm Registration
2.00pm - 2.10pm Opening Remarks by NEF President
2.10pm - 4.45pm How To Change the World with Creative Content & Web 2.0
4.45pm - 5.30pm Tea Break
5.30pm - 6.30pm How To Change the World - An evening with Guy Kawasaki
6.30pm - 7.30pm Networking Session


For Registration:
Log on to http://www.ticket2u.biz or call 03-41498600

For more information:
Log on to http://www.nef.org.my

Register before 12th of May only pays RM200. After 12th of May, registration fees will be RM350

Supported by:

Ideapreneur.net - http://www.ideapreneur.net
MCA ICT Resource Centre - http://www.mirc.org.my
Technopreneur Association Malaysia - http://www.team.net.my
Youth Malaysia - http://www.youthmalaysia.com
PIKOM - http://www.pikom.org.my

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Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Google Considering Setting Up Base at Malaysia

Google is considering between Malaysia, India and Vietnam to set up its base in this region. Malaysia forms the biggest group of Search usage for Google in South East Asia.

This would definitely be a great boost for Malaysia's ICT. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google just had a meeting with Prime Minister of Malaysia, YAB Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at World Economic Forum at Davos!

This would be a good news for many in Malaysia, who would hope that the arrival of Google in big waves would transform our ICT scene.

This is definitely a boost before Malaysia hosts the World Congress of Information Technology (WCIT).

Be A Volunteer for World Congress of Information Technology

After Barcelona, San Francisco, Copenhagen, Tokyo, Toronto, Paris, Washington D.C., London, Yokohama, Bilbao, Fairfax, Taipei, Adelaide, Athens and Austin, Kuala Lumpur will be the host of the 16th World Congress of Information & Technology (WCIT) on 18th to 22nd May 2008.

This would be the biggest and most important conferences that Malaysia is hosting, perhaps after the CHOGM and ASEAN + Regional Partners summit that we have hosted. This would be the biggest gathering of world's thought leaders in Malaysia. We are expecting 2,500 world leaders from corporate and government to attend.

Many prominent figures have confirmed their attendance! This would be a great way for us to gauge how far we have gone since our launching of Multimedia Super Corridor.

WCIT also opened its door for volunteers. Those of you who are interested to sign up, go to here . You would get RM80 a day for your volunteer as well. It would be great learning experience.

MobileMonday Global Summit goes to KL in 2008

With Kuala Lumpur going to be the World's focal point during May 2008, with the organizing of the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT). KL is the host of this Olympics of ICT, where the best brains in ICT will be gathered here in KL.

And besides ICT, MobileMonday, the global community of over 70,000 mobile industry visionaries and developers, will be organizing its 4th Global Summit in KL on 18th to 22nd May 2008, in conjunction with WCIT.

This would likely to bring the movers and shakers of all mobile companies, vendors etc to KL.

Check out the full news at MobileMonday.net