FORMER Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak urged the Government to attract high-valued investments, particularly those from the digital economy of risk falling behind other nations.
“The Government should attract technology titans to invest in our data centres, like what the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) administration did.
“For example, we got Alibaba in and connected our country using high-speed Internet cables. Lets not get left out from the digital economy,” he said in a Facebook post.
Yesterday, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong dismissed claims that Facebook is skipping Malaysia in its plans to install undersea cable due to the reimposition of the cabotage policy on submarine cable repair works.
“The rising tensions between the US and China have caused American companies to avoid installing undersea cables in the South China Sea.
“Their main concern is that US communications might be exposed to monitoring by Beijing. That is why since 2018, the trend is to place undersea cables through the Pacific Ocean as its substitute, bypassing the South China Sea.
“Therefore, it isn’t an issue that is related with the national cabotage policy,” he was reported saying by The Star.
Wee reinstated the cabotage policy, which revoked during the Pakatan Harapan administration, to protect the local shipping industry.
While he accepts Wee’s justification, Najib said that it cannot be denied that Facebook and Google are tech giants and their decision to connect Indonesia and Singapore directly, via a multi-billion-ringgit cable project, would only affect Malaysia’s ability to tap further into the digital economy.
“Digital technology investors will be prone to favour our neighbours. While we say we’re selective over the investments that come in, investors also will be selective in the nations they invest in,” the Pekan MP remarked. – April 5, 2021
