PUTRAJAYA: The government will continue with its plan to increase the country’s broadband penetration to 50 per cent by next year from the current 24 per cent, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said yesterday.He said the move followed a recent World Bank report which stated that every 10 per cent expansion in broadband penetration would help the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grow by 1.3 per cent.

“We can expect that here in Malaysia. This is not a cliche. It is a proven fact. Take South Korea, for example, they went on a massive drive for broadband penetration and content development.

“That spurred their economy even better than Japan,” he told reporters after the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Malaysia International Advisory Panel (IAP) meeting at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre.

The meeting is the first to be chaired by Najib as Prime Minister.

Najib said Malaysia intended to push for broadband penetration in stages and by end of next year, it wanted the penetration rate to be around 50 per cent, augmented by the 4-G services rendered by telecommunication service providers.

4-G is a service that inter-operates between different networks involving high-speed transfer.

“We need higher penetration … connecting places like major hospitals or schools in a locality. We will spell out a clearer guideline when we come out with the new economic model by end of this year.

“The economic model will transcend all sectors and information and communications technology (ICT) will be used across the board,” he said.

He said though the government did not intend to pump in additional funds to achieve its broadband penetration target, it was working on incentives for the private sector to make this a reality.

“We already have RM2.4 billion in the public-private partnership initiative. Telekom Malaysia has set aside some RM9 billion for the broadband initiative … so we feel this is adequate to achieve the target,” he added. —  Bernama