Currently, there are between 100 and 120 contents developers in Malaysia, out of which 40 of them are already working with Maxis, chief executive officer of Maxis Multimedia, Datuk Jamaludin Ibrahim, said at the launch of the programme here on Friday.

He said the company had so far invested RM2.6 million in the programme.

Very few of the available applications have been locally developed for the Malaysian market but with the MDP, "we aim to increase the participation of local content developers and local content. We plan to recruit at least 100 developers by end 2005," Jamaludin said.

Also present at Friday's launch was the chairman of the Malaysian Communications Multimedia Commission, Tan Sri Nuraizah Abdul Hamid.

Jamaludin said that under a special scheme for qualified participants, Maxis Multimedia will allocate all 100 percent of the content revenue generated by the mobile data applications to the participants.

MDP would also be non-exclusive and allow developers to market their products to other local and international mobile operators, he said.

Jamaludin said MDP was initiated in response to the giant growth in mobile data business, both globally and locally.

Quoting a report from Strategy Analytics, a US-based market research and consulting firm, he said revenue from mobile date services in Asia-Pacific reached US$7.8 billion (RM29.64 billion) in 2002 while by 2007, mobile data revenue globally was expected to reach US$112 billion (RM425.6 billion).

He said MDP will provide support to developers to design, develop, test and market their mobile applications and services.

There is no reason why Malaysians cannot emulate the likes of Korea, Japan or China and excel in this sector...this is especially true since the local mobile data business is booming, he said.

Based on Maxis' estimates, last year the mobile data industry in Malaysia generated more than RM500 million in revenue, and this year it is expected to increase to at least RM750 million.

The aim is to deliver the most compelling and innovative applications and services to mobile subscribers in Malaysia and other regions, he said.

"We will leverage on our regional alliances, Asian Mobile Initiatives or AMI, to expose our local content developers to foreign market," he said.

The AMI members are CSL in Hong Kong, Mobile One, Singapore, Smart, Philippines and Telstra, Australia.

Jamaludin said the exposure will open up a whole new avenue of international trade for Malaysia in a new high growth sector where there is potential to be a global player on par with Korea and Japan.

On the funding, he said Maxis Multimedia will assist participants to access financing and start-up capital.

The company has already embarked on joint venture initiatives with Malaysia Venture Capital Management Bhd to assist MDP participants to obtain funding at the seed and pre-seed stages.

"We are also exploring other funding sources," said Jamaludin.

MDP would give immediate focus on Java Technology for mobile phone type applications such as messaging applications, games, personnel productivity tools and enterprise applications.

The applications available now include Tamil-English-Bahasa Malaysia language translator, Islamic prayers time in Malaysia, hotel reservation applications, stock portfolio applications and games.

All these services are currently accessible to Maxis postpaid subscribers who can use their GPRS-enabled and Java enabled mobile phones.

In the future, MDP, he said will also be supporting mobile developers with other technologies such as for native Symbian, Microsoft Pocket PC, Palm OS, and other technologies as they become widely acceptable on mobile devices.

The MDP facilities are currently being used by the eight pioneer participants namely UnrealMind, Murasu Systems, Essentialbiz, Airoport.com, Meta Dome, MNC Consulting, iNavigate and iWAP Systems (Asia).