London Tech Week: M’sia reaps high-impact benefits, says Fahmi

LONDON – Malaysia has derived various high-impact benefits over just a few days through the investment mission organised in conjunction with the London Tech Week 2023.

Besides signing collaboration and investment commitments worth RM8.3 billion, Malaysia also played a major role in offering itself as the digital economy intermediary between Asean and Europe.

Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil described the mission to London as successful and one that has produced encouraging results.

“We have achieved a lot and acquired new findings, including insights on challenges faced by the digital economy sector in the aspects of innovation and new technology,” Fahmi told Bernama. 

He further said that to continue the success momentum, there are several matters that need to be refined and improved.

Among them are enhancing and increasing the appropriate infrastructure.

Emphasis will also be on achieving 100% 5G coverage, or at least 80%, and expanding its services.

Besides that, he said a few acts have been proposed to attract more companies and international players to invest and to be based in Malaysia.

“With this, Malaysia’s digital golden decade can be achieved immediately, making Malaysia the Digital Tiger of Asia,” he said.

During LTW, various issues were discussed by the global technology players.

Among them are challenges in the digital sector including artificial intelligence and issues involving data as well as cyber security.

“The Malaysian delegation also opened up opportunities for local companies to the European market through the United Kingdom (UK). 

“Apart from that, we will bring companies from the UK to invest in Malaysia.

“We hope the LTW series and other programmes next year would generate more investment opportunities,” said Fahmi. 

According to him, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, to be signed by the UK soon, would provide opportunities to enhance cooperation between the two countries, especially in the digital economy, thus increasing the country’s economic growth.

Meanwhile, in a statement released in Kuala Lumpur, the Communications and Digital Ministry welcomed the proposal by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim on the Cyber Security Bill that must be drafted immediately to enable Malaysia to face challenges in the digital era and address cyber security threats.

This included amendments to the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (Act 709), which will examine the mandatory notification of companies or data users to the Personal Data Protection Department in the event of a data breach, which is now in the final phase before being brought to the cabinet and subsequently to Parliament. – Bernama, June 16, 2023