The one-year campaign jointly organised by various commercial and non-profit organisations was announced by Deputy Minister of Energy, Communications and Multimedia Datuk Tan Chai Ho, who is also patron of the campaign.
"The campaign's objectives are to raise the level of Internet literacy among Malaysians, and to promote a lifelong learning culture among participants in line with Malaysia's goal of achieving a knowledgeable society," he told reporters yesterday.
He said there were more than four million Internet users nationwide and studies indicated the majority of them were those in the 20 to 24 years old age group.
Although, it indicated that young adults were taking the lead in enlarging the Internet population in the country, there were other levels of the population that had yet to go "online", he said.
Tan said data mining in various Malaysian Internet portals showed that Malaysians over 30 years old are under-represented online although many of the people signed up for Internet accounts were over 30 years old.
"Various factors contribute to the scenario, one of the most highlighted being that Malaysians over 30 years old prefer conventional methods, their dependence of their old-habits makes it difficult for them to adopt the new ways of doing things," he said.
Co-organising chairman of the campaign and iBroadNet.com Group chief executive officer Lim Say Thean said the campaign, which targetted the adults, would provide training and hands-on Internet courses to participants.
The participants would also learn how to use the campaign's website, e-trainingsite.com, which provides a series of online training programmes including to see, hear and receive multimedia data from trainers.
Interested participants would have to pay RM50 to register for a free half-day hands-on Internet course to learn the basics of logging into the Internet and elementary browser skills, at any of the 200 affiliated computer education centres nationwide.
They would also enjoy benefits such as the waiving of the fee for the first year Internet account, 4,000 minutes of Internet access within five months, free web hosting, attendance to 50 free e-talks and seminars online, accumulation of BonusLink points, free blood test and sign up for HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad's credit card.
Lim said about 500,000 Malaysians were expected to participate in the campaign jointly organised by various companies and organisations such iBroadNet.com Sdn Bhd, Bonuskad Loyalty Sdn Bhd, Hewlett-Packard Sales, Telekom Malaysia, HSBC, Unimaya Bhd, SMI Association Malaysia, Yayasan Strategik Sosial.
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