LANGKAWI: A digital initiative at a cost of RM200 million to transform the island’s tourism, economy and community was launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak here today.
The Langkawi Digital Initiative aims to boost the island’s 3D and 4G LTE internet coverage as part of a comprehensive plan to transform five main target clusters - Smart Economy, Smart Tourism, Smart Community, Smart Environment & Smart Security.
Kedah Science, Innovation, Information Technology, Communications and High Tech Committee chairman Datuk Sabrina Mohd Noor said under the initiative, the island would be connected by a 152km fibre optic cable which links to 47 existing telecommunications tower and 10 more that will be constructed.
Sabrina said the allocation, which was approved by the Communications and Multimedia Ministry, will help to boost the 3G and 4G LTE internet coverage on the islandwhere currently, the internet coverage is at 99 per cent for 2G and 95 per cent 3G.
"Under the initiative, four 1Malaysia Internet Centre (PI1M) which offers various services including digital centre, eRezeki and eUsahawan will be built, including in Pulau Tuba, which to be connected to High Speed Broadband (HSBB) facility.
"This initiative is a huge boost to achieve the aspiration to transform Langkawi into the country's digital hub with the 'World Class Tourism Island, World Class Facility' mantra.
"It is also part of our effort to prepare Langkawi to face the digital revolution in daily life, education and jobs," she said in her speech at the launching ceremony.
She added that this in line with the prime minister's aim to make use of digital economy to achieve double digit economic growth.
Sabrina added that under the Langkawi Digital, various applications are being developed such a tourism apps (Mycribbooking), security monitoring, entrepreneurship apps; Langkawi Mall, Augmented Reality and many other Information Technology platforms for tourism sector.
"The latest initiative that being introduced is the Langkawi ‘Cashless @ School’ which involved the cashless payment system at eight schools in Langkawi, the first in Malaysia," she said.