The Impact of the Implementation of Rural Internet Centers on Rural Residents in Beranang and Tanjung Sepat

Abstract

The development of information and communication technology (ICT) has been proven to be able to help facilitate daily activities that were previously carried out manually in a more productive direction. There is no doubt technology is also changing the lifestyle of our society. The government has implemented various efforts to ensure that the people in Malaysia, whether in urban or rural areas, can master ICT, including through the Beranang Rural Internet Center (PID) and Tanjung Sepat PID. This study has two objectives, namely to find out the impact of PID implementation on the rural population, as well as to study the proposed improvement of PID implementation on the rural population. This study uses a qualitative approach that is in-depth interviews with policy makers at KKMM and policy implementers of which are supervisors working at PID and also a focus group involving 28 PID users, to collect data. The results of this study found that the implementation of PID is indeed effective in developing the rural population. Consumers get such high satisfaction especially in the economic aspect. However, the limited aspect of facilities interferes with user satisfaction to use this PID. This is because the area allocated for PID is found to be small and only a limited number of computers are provided. Dissemination activities on various PID programs also need to be increased because there are still many rural residents who think that PID is just a place to access the internet. Keywords: Information technology, policy, rural Internet center, rural, digital.