Eight new e-Desa centres for Sabah
Published on: Monday, November 03, 2014
.jpg "Eight new e-Desa centres for Sabah")
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah will be getting eight new e-Desa centres to ensure rural residents are not left behind in information communication technology (ICT) development. Resource Development and Information Technology Ministry Permanent Secretary, Datuk Bruno Vun, said five e-Desa centres will be established this year and another three by next year."Actually the ministry targets to set up 85 e-Desa centres covering mostly the interior areas so that the Internet penetration in Sabah would be higher and more people will be IT-savvy.
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"However, only 25 e-Desa centres are operating throughout Sabah, so far, and five more are coming up by end of this year at Long Pasia, Kg Matupang in Ranau, Kg Inukiran in Matunggong, Kg Malangkap in Kota Belud and Kg Tanjung Batu in Tawau."In addition, three more e-Desa centres will be established next year at a village in Ranau, one district in the East Coast and another district in the West Coast," he said.Vun said this to reporters after officiating at the closing of the OSINDAK I.T. 2.0 programme at Membakut district level at a hotel, here, Saturday.The two-day programme was a follow-up to OSINDAK I.T. that was held last year for the same district and the OSINDAK I.T. 2.0 was jointly organised by the ministry together with selected community leaders like headmen, JKKK chairmen, native chiefs and native chiefs representatives.
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A total of 33 participants comprising community leaders and elderly from Membakut were chosen to learn about basic computer and IT applications like surfing social media, emailing and word processing, among others.Also present were the ministry's senior assistant secretary Moira David and Umno Kimanis Wanita Chief Dayang Surayah Ibrahim.
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Vun said about RM675,000 will be spent on each centre that will be installed with 20 sets of computers, Internet access and a meeting room."For those locations that are very remote, we would also provide generator sets to supply electricity or build turbine for mini hydro at streams to generate electricity to the centres."For instance, we would provide such facilities in Long Pasia and Kg Malangkap in Kota Belud," he said.Vun said a committee will be created to manage the centres, including setting a minimal fee to use the computers where revenue generated from the centre will be used to cover the maintenance of the centre. He said the committee is also allowed to carry out any kind of business activities at the centre to generate income.He cited the e-Desa centre in Kg Saga-Saga, Membakut which has a car wash business and a spa and reflexology centre at e-Desa in Kota Belud.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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