Internet Alliance (IA) – also known as \u201cPersatuan Hubungan Internet Selangor dan Kua-la Lumpur\u201d, a non-profit organisation that collectively facilitate over 80 per cent of Ma-laysia\u2019s active Internet scene aims to double its membership by end of 2017<\/p>\n
The current IA membership comprises about 50 odd members, who are largely made up of Internet Service Provider (ISP) corporations and businesses. The alliance made the pledge at the recent AGM where it appointed new committee for the next one year.<\/p>\n
President of IA, Chan Kee Siak – reappointed to serve IA for another two years, says, \u201cDue to the increasing dependence of the country\u2019s economy and business social con-nectivity on the Internet – IA is growing in relevance as local cloud providers and In-ternet players need a strong representation to the marketplace. IA welcomes this en-couraging trend and concurrently targets to double our membership to 100 members by the end of 2017.\u201d<\/p>\n
Established since 2010, IA\u2019s current membership base of 50 members cover a diverse Internet operational composition that includes major website hosters, Cloud-infrastructure providers, eCommerce platform and marketplace providers, data centers, payment gateway providers. All of these members collectively enable over 80 percent of the country\u2019s active Internet infrastructure and operations.<\/p>\n
Chan shares that one of the biggest values that IA provides is its active and diverse series of ICT themed knowledge-sharing events and industry-level networking activities \u2013 whereby every member gets to participate in roundtables, advisory committees, and at-tend every expo conference applicable.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, since the beginning of the year we had roundtable discussion and training workshops covering hosting and cloud, Software-as-a-Service (Saas), Payment Gateway, What\u2019s New in FB Marketing, IT & Professional Liability, Mobile Messenger and Bots Marketing, and many more.<\/p>\n
All of these topics are highly relevant and with top appeal to our members, who contin-uously need to improve their performance and customer SLAs in the Internet business,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Chan also believes that the growing importance of the Internet\u2019s role in the general economy and social life drives the relevance of IA\u2019s role.<\/p>\n
A recent example was during the set up by of the Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) by the Malaysian government in joining Alibaba\u2019s representation as China\u2019s lead for greater eCommerce trading in the Asia region.<\/p>\n
IA stepped into the picture by voicing out the (for example) collective import-export tax concerns that the DFTZ would have on local Internet service and infrastructure provid-ers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chan says that IA\u2019s membership offers Internet players to know first hand the concerns, issues and on-goings in the local Internet scene; gaining more visibility and being heard.<\/p>\n
IA membership fees is at RM3,000 per annum and is opened to all Set-Ups, Startups, SMEs and companies which provide any kind of Internet-related business or service in Malaysia.<\/p>\n