Davos updates: IT Giants coming to Kuala Lumpur

25 Jan

Posted by User Image Rosli M Hanip as business

It is being reported last night from Davos, that our Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis said that Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Intel chairman Dr Craig Barrett will be among the eminent global personalities at the 16th World Congress on Information Technology in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia is the first South-East Asian nation to host the biennial event, often billed as the Olympics of ICT, from May 18 to 22, 2008.

Other personalities include Blue Brain Project chairman Dr Robert Bishop, International Telecommunication Union secretary-general Dr Hamadoun Toure, Dr Robert Atkinson of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Robert Carter of FedEx and Douglas Merrill of Google.

“The congress will bring the world’s ICT giants to Malaysia,” said Datuk Seri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis to our Malaysian reporters in Davos.

He said Malaysia must continue to develop its ICT industry, particularly its technology entrepreneurs, as innovative knowledge could help drive the future economy. More than 2,500 delegates from over 80 countries are expected to attend the meeting, which will address issues like technology’s impact on education, innovation, technopreneurship and the future of the Internet.

To the similar and an interesting topic, Google Inc., the world’s top internet search company, plans to invest on the world’s biggest server farm, which could be located in Malaysia, India or Vietnam. A server farm is a cluster of server computers, or powerful computers, that store vast amount of data.

Datuk Seri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis told national news agency Bernama that Google has shown interest to invest in Malaysia. “It will be very major for Malaysia. The investment could run into a few hundred million ringgit”.

More updates on WEF, Davos later. Stay tuned!