Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator Datuk Abdul Raman Suliman said Malaysia was not far behind in the usage of ICT, adding that the Government was ensuring there was progress in every field.
Met at the Parliament lobby later, Abdul Raman said Malaysia was ranked one of the top five countries in a study carried out by the Malaysian Administrative and Modernisation Planning Unit (Mampu) under the Prime Minister’s Department.
Malaysia’s ranking, he said, was based on every aspect of ICT, which included Internet usage, the number of ICT companies, e-trading and the number of hits on websites.
Earlier, replying to Razali Ibrahim (BN – Muar), Abdul Raman said that between January and June this year, the Islamic Religious Development Department (Jakim) website had the highest hits among the 900 government websites.
“Jakim had 99,560,009 hits, the Finance Ministry received 14,309,102 hits, followed by International Trade and Industry Ministry (10,340,803), Kolej Universiti Islam Malaysia (8,166,483) and Malaysian Industrial Development Board (7,426,992),” he said.
Meanwhile, the website with the lowest number of hits was the National Tobacco Board, with only 506.
Abdul Raman also said that there was a special division within Mampu to monitor the updating of government websites.
“If needed, we will also consult experts from outside (the country) to make our websites more advanced and attractive to surfers,” he said.
To a supplementary question by Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang, Abdul Raman said he was not aware of the Global e-Government Study done by Brown University, which had purportedly ranked Malaysia eighth out of 198 countries in 2003 but at 157 last year.
“As far as I’m concerned, the university did not approach us to obtain any information so I don’t know how reliable its sources are,” he said.
Quelle/Source: The Malaysia Star, 01.12.2006
