“Connectivity and the internet are considered a human right. We want to see all Malaysians, wherever they may be, even in the interior, with access to high quality connectivity,” he said when winding up the debate on the motion of thanks on the royal address at the Dewan Rakyat today.

He was replying to Ahmad Fadhli Shaari (PAS-Pasir Mas) about the slow construction of telecommunication towers, despite already being part of the national digital network (Jendala) initiative.

Annuar said among the locations where towers will be built in stages were Hulu Rajang (59 towers), Julau (47), Betong (40), Beaufort (26) and Pasir Mas (two).

He added that his ministry targeted the transition of coverage from 3G to 4G to be fully achieved by the end of this year.

Annuar urged MPs whose constituencies experienced coverage problems to inform him, so that a study could be carried out immediately on the need for communications towers.

He said the Malaysian emergency response services (999) would be improved to display accurate location information for incoming calls to the 999 call centre.

He said that the ministry, through the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), had been implementing various programmes to provide opportunities to target groups including young people, to reap the benefits and opportunities in the digital world.

The programmes included the Global Online Workforce under Penjana, which was introduced in September last year to help 10,000 individuals from three target groups, namely, individuals who lost their jobs, those whose incomes were affected (salary cuts of more than 50%) and unemployed graduates.

He said until June 30, a total of 10,200 participants were trained and mentored, and managed to generate accumulated income amounting to RM15.29 million.