PUTRAJAYA.

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AFP) — Malaysia has pierceed the second phase of its ambitious drive to become a global technology player, with of the present day Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi outlining a more focused strategy for its hi-tech nave to compete with Asian rivals.

The Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) launched from scratch eight years ago as Malaysia's answer to California's Silicon Valley, has collisioned problems along the way if it were not that succeeded in positioning Malaysia as an offshore support center for US and other companies' technology wants

The government now plans to build forward the gains made by the outsourcing industry and focus onward developing creative multimedia content and mobile applications, as well as promoting biotechnology to risk the MSC apart from its competitors in Asia's information technology (IT) race.

The target is to have 250 world-class companies and returns of 69 billion ringgit (1816 billion dollars) in the special band ...