(Left) Online 2020’s Kay Peng and USJ.com’s Jeff Ooi exchanging the MoU, witnessed by Chia (middle)

By usj Xpress Team

SUBANG JAYA - Efforts in fostering a knowledge economy in Malaysia took a bold step with the twinning of USJ Subang Jaya and Bukit Bendera.

An MoU signifying future joint development programmes between usj.com.my and bukitbendera.com.my was held in Penang on July 1.

Chia Kwang Chye, the Parlimentary Secretary of the Ministry of Energy, Telecommunications and Multimedia, witnessed the ceremony. He is also the Member of Parliament for the Bukit Bendera constituency.

Usj.com.my was represented by its founder Jeff Ooi, while BukitBendera.com.my was represented by Khoo Kay Peng, president of Online 2020 Club, which managed the website.

Both the e-communities are cyber networks initiated by volunteers and talents in the web technology. They are financially independent and non-political by nature.

"The twinning programme carries a significant meaning for all of us," said Jeff Ooi.

"It marks the networking of the Internet generation from the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) and Malaysia's Silicon Island," he said Subang Jaya has a quarter million population and 80 per cent came under the MSC boundary while Bukit Bendera, with its 150,000 population, comprised one of the most progressive zones in Malaysia's high-technology state.

"We have no time to re-invent the wheel as Internet applications change at warp speed," Jeff said.

"We will tap into each other's resources and experiences to create a difference in building a Bangsa Malaysia that is net-savvy.

" Earlier, Khoo announced that Online 2020 Club would partner programmers from usj.com.my to co-develop applications that will benefit the e-community through the vast use of information and communications technology (ICT).

"Online 2020 Club is a group of young technocrats who work in the high-tech industries in Penang and we share a vision to make Penang a developed state by 2010," Khoo said.

"But we also harbour a mission to help the community in Penang to quickly embrace the Internet or else we will lose out in the new economy" he added.

"Therefore, by working together with usj.com.my, we can not only share our resources, but it will quicken the networking of e-communities in the country," he said.

For a start, Usj.com.my will make available its dynamic web content updating software, the ECWeb Publisher 3.0 running on Linux, to Bukit Bendera Online when it is ready by mid July.

The ECWeb Publisher, which supports wireless applications protocol (WAP) and PalmOS, was developed by a team of volunteers led by Penangite E.L. Ho who was now based in Subang Jaya.

Web teams from both the e-communities will then proceed to develop a dynamic engine for business directory to help the small and medium-sized businesses to migrate to e-Commerce.

The USJ Subang Jaya website can be accessed at usj.com.my while the URL for Bukit Bendera Online is bukitbendera.com.my. Visit www.usj.com.my