MSC Malaysia (formerly known as the Multimedia Super Corridor, and known as the MSC in Malaysia) is a

Special Economic Zone A special economic zone (SEZ) is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country. SEZs are located within a country's national borders, and their aims include increasing trade balance, employment, increas ...

and

high-technology business district This is a list of technology centers throughout the world. Government planners and business networks often incorporate "silicon" or "valley" into place names to describe their own areas as a result of the success of Silicon Valley in Califor ...

in central-southern

Selangor Selangor (; ), also known by its Arabic language, Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity", is one of the 13 Malaysian states. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the east ...

, Malaysia.

Geographical definition

The MSC's northern end is at the

Petronas Towers The Petronas Towers, also known as the Petronas Twin Towers or KLCC Twin Towers, (Malay: ''Menara Berkembar Petronas'') are 88-storey supertall skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, standing at . From 1998 to 2003, they were officially design ...

in downtown

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

, extending through

Cyberjaya Cyberjaya (a portmanteau of ''cyber'' and ''Putrajaya'') is a city with a science park as the core that forms a key part of the Multimedia Super Corridor in Malaysia. It is located in Sepang District, Selangor. Cyberjaya is adjacent to, and deve ...

Putrajaya Putrajaya (), officially the Federal Territory of Putrajaya ( ms, Wilayah Persekutuan Putrajaya), is a planned capital city which functions as the administrative capital and the judicial capital of Malaysia. The seat of the federal government ...

, the

Kuala Lumpur International Airport Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) is Malaysia's main international airport. It is located in the Sepang District of Selangor, approximately south of Kuala Lumpur and serves the city's greater conurbation. KLIA is the largest and b ...

and most of

Sepang Pekan Sepang is a small border town and also a mukim in Sepang District, Selangor, Malaysia. The Sepang International Circuit in the western part of the town, where the Malaysian F1 Grand Prix was and Malaysian MotoGP Grand Prix is held. Mal ...

constituency, as well as parts of

Bandar Tun Razak Bandar Tun Razak is a township and parliamentary constituency in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is named after the second Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Abdul Razak. There are a number of schools and institutions of learning in Bandar Tun Razak. ...

Puchong Puchong is a major town and a parliamentary constituency in Petaling District, Selangor, Malaysia. It is bordered by Subang Jaya in the north, Sepang and Putrajaya in the south, Serdang in the east and Putra Heights in the west. History The ...

and Serdang constituencies, before terminating at

Nilai Nilai is a town located in Seremban District, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia, close to the border with Selangor. It is the northern suburb within the Seremban metropolitan area. Due to its proximity to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, it ...

Negeri Sembilan Negeri Sembilan (, Negeri Sembilan Malay: ''Nogoghi Sombilan'', ''Nismilan'') is a state in Malaysia which lies on the western coast of Peninsular Malaysia. It borders Selangor on the north, Pahang in the east, and Malacca and Johor to the s ...

History

The MSC program was officially inaugurated by the fourth Malaysian Prime Minister

Mahathir Mohamad Mahathir bin Mohamad ( ms, محاضير بن محمد, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset; ; born 10 July 1925) is a Malaysian politician, author, and physician who served as the 4th and 7th Prime Minister of Malaysia. He held the office ...

on 12 February 1996. The establishment of the program was crucial to accelerate the objectives of Vision 2020 and to transform Malaysia into a modern state by 2020, with the adoption of a knowledge-based society framework.

Purpose

The MSC flagship applications were launched to boost the MSC Malaysia initiatives and to create a hub for innovative producers and users of multimedia technology. Consortia comprising local and foreign companies (MNCs) collaborated with government agencies, departments and ministries to enhance the socio-economic development of Malaysia in the information age. The vision and mission of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) as expressed by Dr Mahathir Mohammad, the Prime Minister of Malaysia at the time (1981–2003), is essentially this:

MSC is paramount to leapfrog (Malaysia) into the 21st century and to achieve Malaysia's Vision 2020, the MSC was created to endeavour the best environment to harness the full potential of the multimedia without any artificial limits. MSC is a global test bed (hub), where the limits of the possible can be explored, and new ways of living, working, and playing in the new area of the Information Age.

The Multimedia Super Corridor is a government-designated zone in designed to

leapfrog Leapfrog is a children's game in which players vault over each other's stooped backs. History Games of this sort have been called by this name since at least the late sixteenth century.Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

into the information and knowledge age. It aims to attract companies with temporary tax breaks and facilities such as high-speed Internet access and proximity to the

. MSC Malaysia covers an area of approximately × (that is, ) stretching from the

to the

, and including the towns of

and

. It was announced by former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir at the Multimedia Asia Conference on 1 August 1996. Mahathir's visit to the United States of America in January 1997 to promote the MSC to companies succeeded in attracting the interest of many large information technology companies. During the visit, an international advisory panel comprising 30 information technology experts were formed to exchange ideas toward the success of the MSC. The Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC, formerly MDC) was created to oversee development of the MSC. It was later renamed to Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC). File:KLIA_MTB%26Tower.jpg,

at the south border File:KL Outing 022b.jpg,

at the north border File:Masjid Putrajaya.jpg,

File:CYBER.jpg,

Effects on press freedom

Though Malaysian law had provided for strict government controls on print media since 1984, a founding principle of MSC Malaysia was that government censorship of the Internet would not be permitted. Seeing a loophole, journalist

Steven Gan Steven Gan (; born c. 1963) is a Malaysian journalist known for co-founding and editing the political news website ''Malaysiakini'' (English: "Malaysia Today"), Malaysia's "first and only" independent news source. In 2000, he was awarded the I ...

and colleague Premesh Chandran started an online news resource that would be free of the controls that they felt stifled print media. In November 1999, the pair founded

Malaysiakini ''Malaysiakini'' (meaning in English: "Malaysia Now") is an online news portal published in Malay, English, Chinese and Tamil. Malaysiakini receives over 2.3 million page-views per day on desktop and mobile. Alexa ranked ''malaysiakini.com'' ...

, an online, independent news source that would become one of Malaysia's most popular websites. It was awarded a Free Media Pioneer award from the

International Press Institute International Press Institute (IPI) is a global organisation dedicated to the promotion and protection of press freedom and the improvement of journalism practices. The institution was founded by 34 editors from 15 countries at Columbia Universit ...

in 2001, and Gan was awarded one of the 2000

CPJ International Press Freedom Awards The CPJ International Press Freedom Awards honor journalists or their publications around the world who show courage in defending press freedom despite facing attacks, threats, or imprisonment. Established in 1991, the awards are administered by ...

for his work with the site.

MSC status companies

Since 1997, Malaysian and foreign companies could apply for MSC status. Those approved were provided with a certificate signed by two government ministers listing additional rights and benefits for that company. By 2017 there were over 3000 MSC status companies. Benefits included exemption from Malaysian income tax for ten years, and streamlined immigration of key workers. The first few companies awarded MSC status included Telekom,

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

and

Oracle An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The word '' ...

Depictions

The reverse side of the 1996 series RM5 banknote featured a map of the Multimedia Super Corridor.

References

External links

Mscmalaysia.my MSC Malaysia websiteMscmalaysia.my MSC Malaysia Animation and Creative Content Center (MAC3)Mscmalaysia.my MSC Malaysia Capability Development Programmes (CDP)
{{coord missing, Malaysia Sepang District Development Corridors in Malaysia High-technology business districts in Malaysia Information technology places Science and technology in Malaysia Economy of Malaysia Klang Valley Mass media companies of Malaysia Populated places in Selangor Populated places established in 1996 1996 establishments in Malaysia