"Sincere, in the sense that those involved must view the cooperation as a partnership of equals who all have a say in how the world should develop and smart in the sense that we want to ensure that the partnership facilitates a global positive sum game or a win-win situation, and not for the sole benefit of the cyber-elite," he added.
The deputy prime minister was addressing about 1,000 local and foreign delegates in his speech at the first session of the Second Global Knowledge Conference (GKII), currently held here beginning today till March 10.
He cautioned that while the creation of knowledge societies are desirable as it encourages the spread of information and knowledge to those who have thus been denied access, the sheer exuberance of ushering a global knowledge economy can bring about the great digital divide.
"For every example of global progress, there is always a counter example which illustrates that prosperity has not been broad-based and that development has not been equitable," said Badawi.
He also noted that although world trade and foreign direct investments have increased and the price of communicating has decreased, the world also has to face the reality that basic provisions are still required in many parts of the world.
According to Badawi, over one billion people do not have access to clean water, about 840 million are malnourished and one out of seven children of primary school age are out of school.
"If basic provisions such as these are still wanting in many parts of the world, it is almost meaningless to talk of cellular phone penetration in these least developed economies," said Badawi.
"On one hand we see mergers and acquisitions worth billions of dollars between dot coms and telecommunication companies, and on the other, a situation where the poor continue to wallow in abject poverty," he added.
This dichotomy, he observed, has yet to have a bridge. As a result, those who are marginalised cannot put the new global knowledge economy into any context.
Said Badawi,"To them, the basic challenge remains the same, literally, to survive. For the majority of people there is no great paradigm shift, and there may never be one."
Despite these challenges, however, the government of Malaysia, he added, believes that efforts must be made toward transforming its own economy into a knowledge-based economy.
While doing so, it is also important that digital divides are not created domestically.
"In Malaysia, we developed a holistic approach to creating a knowledge economy by focusing on inter alia education, public services and communities."
"An example of how we have attempted to contextualise the digital revolution for the rural community is through the initiative of our mobile internet unit which brings the world wide web to rural students," said Badawi.
The government, he added, has also set up e-communities in villages where skills directed at improving their specific livelihoods are taught.
It is hoped that the Malaysia model of providing access and empowerment to her people can be replicated on the world stage.
"The efforts by developing countries to build our domestic capacities in line with the creation of knowledge economies will come to naught if we are not met half way by the developed countries."
"Let us remember that the future belongs to us all," he concluded.
GKII is hosted by the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) and Government of Malaysia, which is a member of GKP. The theme of the four-day conference is Building Knowledge Societies: access---empowerment---governance.
GKII focuses worldwide attention on the information and communications technologies and their impact on the lives of the six billion people in the world.
According to GKP statistics, around 179 million people worldwide are online today. But they are mostly people in the developed countries.
Almost 145 million or 81 percent are in Europe, Canada and the United States. By contrast, a little over one million Africans and about 5.3 million South Americans are online.
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