M'sia to host International ICT Volunteers programme
Published on: Friday, July 10, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: Malaysia was recently selected to host the International ICT Volunteers (IIV) programme for this year. The programme is co-organised by the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and Korea's National Information Society Agency (NIA). Inaugurated in 2013, this programme aims to provide an open platform for multi stakeholders to mobilise human and various resources aimed at empowering people at all levels such as youth, professionals, women, children and retired people. ADVERTISEMENT MCMC Chairman Datuk Seri Dr Halim Shafie said with ICT playing an important role in any country's development, the Asean Telecommunication Ministers Meeting had agreed on a Smart Asean agenda leveraging on ICT in moving forward towards the development target in 2020 and beyond. He said working towards this objective, most Asean countries with Malaysia included have adopted various ICT programmes towards bridging the digital divide in their respective countries."Through many initiatives, today our household broadband Internet penetration has reached about 70.2 per cent and many initiatives such as introduction of ICT in schools, and rural Internet centres or 1Malaysia Internet Centres. "(The centres) have been undertaken to widen awareness and promote competency development in ICT among school children and the public, particularly those in the rural areas."ADVERTISEMENT He said this in his welcoming speech at the 2015 IIV Boot Camp, officiated by Korean Ambassador to Malaysia, Cho Byungjae, on Thursday here. "We are happy to become the host and we also thank ITU and NIA for initiating this very interesting and educational programme in which over 300 volunteers from South Korea have been dispatched to countries in the Asia-Pacific Region since 2012.
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"For this year, two teams of four volunteers will be dispatched to Tenom, Sabah and Kemaman, Terengganu, with each representing diverse places, both economically and culturally."He said eight volunteers from Malaysia were part of the 100 volunteers who will also be dispatched to six other countries, namely Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Sri Lanka.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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The two-day boot camp would also feature team building session as well as photo and video shooting training. Following this, the volunteers would be despatched to the countries for a month while those despatched to Malaysia would stay for two months.