KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 22 — The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is aiming to bolster youth connectivity by strengthening their access to broadband through 1,064 Community Internet Centres (PIK) nationwide.

MCMC said the PIK is designed as a digital transformation centre for the community with an emphasis on youth, through which they can elevate their social economic status. It added that skills in programming, robotic applications, application designing, e-commerce and video editing will be conducted at PIK.

MCMC also touted several affordable broadband packages for youths offered by several telecommunications companies.

In a statement today, the commission listed Celcom’s Xpax XP Lite package, Digi’s Prepaid NEXT plan, and TM unifi Mobile Bebas prepaid plans as those providing unlimited access to the internet at prices it said were affordable.

The MCMC said youths aged 15 to 40 are the biggest demographic group online at 67.8 per cent of Malaysia’s 28.7 million internet users.

It noted that 80.9 per cent or 16.6 million are involved in e-commerce and another 78.4 per cent spend anywhere between one and 12 hours online a day.

The MCMC announcement follows Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s announcement on September 17 that the government has budgeted RM2.4 billion on communications infrastructure for Sabah under the National Digital Network announcement.