Digital inclusion and the sustainability of multifunctional telecenters in Indonesia and Malaysia

A telecentre is a premise which serves as the central information and communications technology (ICT) for rural society to obtain information and knowledge. Telecentres in the 21st Century should be able to enhance the standard of living and quality of life of villagers. This calls for the development of telecentres with multiple functions known as Multipurpose Telecentres (MTC). The MTC development covers four main areas, namely, infrastructure and services, development and entrepreneurship, e-learning and lifelong learning, and industrial development and the Quartenary sector of creative services industry. The question which this paper focuses on, based on a descriptive and comparative analysis of Malaysian and Indonesian MTCs, was whether the telecentres in Indonesia and Malaysia did meet the criteria of multiple functions capable of catalysing the development of a knowledge society in their respective rural areas.