In the early 70's, IBM was looking for ways to respond to Malaysia's New Economic Policy (NEP), to increase Bumiputera participation towards the growth of the Malaysian economy. The result was a strategic plan to build entrepreneurial talent and business acumen by creating a Bumiputera company that would serve as IBM's sole dealer and agent in Malaysia. That company was Mesiniaga. Mesiniaga was formed on December 17, 1981. It was helmed by Ismail Sulaiman, formerly General Manager of IBM Malaysia, together with a team of senior ex-IBM personnel. Today, Mesiniaga has emerged as one of the leading, local IT companies in the country. It has evolved from a hardware vendor and has become a one-stop IT solutions provider. The company?s current portfolio ranges from planning and development to full implementation, system documentation, user education and assistance, systems and network management and system maintenance. Mesiniaga represents IBM, and several blue chip industry names like Avaya, Cisco Systems, Lotus, Microsoft, Tivoli and others.