By Saiful Bahri Kamaruddin
Pix Izwan Azman

BANGI, 13 Nov 2013 – Malaysia is currently the world leader in Shared Services and Outsourcing industry (SSO) in Information Technology.

Second Education Minister Dato’ Seri Idris Jusoh said this sector has garnered investments of more than RM1 billion and has resulted in the creation of almost 60,000 jobs by 2008 and is expected to create a total of 300,000 jobs by the end of 2013.

His speech was delivered by the Deputy Secretary General of the Education Ministry Dato’ Nasir bin Mat Dam at the opening of the three-day Third International Visual Informatics Conference (IVIC) 2013 organised by The National University of Malaysia (UKM) and twenty other institutions here today.

Dato’ Seri Idris said there are now 184 SSO companies and about 79,000 knowledge workers in the country.

The minister said that Malaysia’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is forecast to generate income of USD14.1 billion next year with an annual growth rate of 11.9%.

Since the inception of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) in 1997, a total of 2,455 companies and institutions of higher learning have received MSC status.

There is, however, still a need to develop better solutions and improving existing ICT products and services through upgraded research.

Dato’ Seri Idris said the efforts are in line with the National Digital Transformation Plan of Malaysia and will make access to learning easier.

Research creativity and innovations in visual informatics are not just relevant in education but also in industry as well as the services sector.

Present at the opening ceremony was UKM Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Student and Alumni Affairs) Prof Dato’ Ir Dr Osman A Karim and Director of the Institute of Visual Informatics UKM Prof Dato’ Dr Halimah Badioze Zaman, who was also IVIC 2013 chairman.

Researchers and academics from Asia, the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and Taiwan took part with nearly 70 research papers presented at separate workshops.