TOOLS FOR THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY: AN OVERVIEW

CONCLUSIONS : RECOMMENDATIONS

National Government should seek develop a series of programs and policies to stimulate and bolster the knowledge economy in Malaysia. They can do this in many ways such as:

• making more information available online from government itself to ensure there is an informed citizenry, that can take advantage of local, national and international opportunities in the information-based knowledge economy;
• developing schemes of information categories to point people and organization towards information they are seeking from government, to assist in their online and offline business activities;
• evolving models of co-operation between national, state and local governments to enable the citizen to come to portals that can lead him or her to the category of information sought;
• providing web sites that seek input from people on all manner of government programs and issues;
• providing educational grants to develop technology and literacy skills, which will assist in the development of knowledge workers;
• developing necessary legislation to stimulate and protect the knowledge economy. Such legislation would include: data protection laws; public key infrastructure; copyright and intellectual property laws in alignment with the needs of the knowledge economy; this would assist in developing trust and security online and create an environment in which government, business and the citizen can do business;
• providing programs that encourage innovation and creativity within corporations, to make them competitive in the global knowledge economy;
• providing policies of investment in small and medium organizations, to make these groups a part of the national and global knowledge economy;
• developing local community projects that embrace all levels of society from the academic world, to businesses, large and small, to non-profit and volunteer organizations; this can encompass governments in developing countries;
• developing web sites that allow citizens and businesses, who have online capabilities, easy access to the web and related sites (the whole point of the linked, networked model);
• ensuring information on web sites is easily attainable, in a form understood by the users and can easily be downloaded;
• providing search engines and hot links to ensure that businesses and other organization get what they want in the right format from the right agency;
• in developing countries, where access to the Internet is limited, work to develop information policies that encompass all the citizens in the countries; this would include programs like Canada's successful Community Access Program;
• developing programs to teach local leaders in the communities to become information facilitators; this is especially important where there is limited, or no access, to online sources of information or computer access or high rates of illiteracy. Such activities could help in developing potential knowledge workers;

As indicated above, the Internet and ICT's are a medium that has allowed people to involve themselves in the new economy in new and unique ways. Governments at all levels and will increasingly be impacted by these changes. Thus, there is also a need for awareness building within governments of the changes that are occurring. This can be accomplished through educational and training programs.