Malaysia, US to strengthen cooperation on cybersecurity, digital economy

Communications and Multimedia Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa said all these were on the table during US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo's busy one-day visit to Malaysia on Thursday.

Annuar said during his meeting with Raimondo, he shared various digital initiatives being undertaken by the country, including the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint (MyDIGITAL), the government's plan for 5G roll out, as well as as the importance of cybersecurity.

"We had a very good discussion and we managed to explain our national digital programme and blueprint that was launched early this year," he told reporters after their meeting.

Annuar said he also took the opportunity to explain the government's priority on attracting investors from abroad, especially with regard to the setting up of data centres, submarine cables as well as cloud computing activities.

"These are among the things we are focusing on for the digital age, where we feel with the availability of facilities including 5G, we are able to attract new technology-driven investment and activities related to artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and (other) advanced technologies," he said.

Annuar said the United States had also introduced several new technologies including the Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) system and invited Malaysia to get acquainted with the more sophisticated system.

He said the matter would be studied by the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) as Malaysia was currently using the Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN) system.

"What's important is that we both agreed to follow-up on some specific matters related to cybersecurity, cooperation between American and Malaysian entities with regard to cybersecurity, and also cooperation between companies as well as investments.

"We'd like to encourage American companies to invest and (engage in) transfer of technology," he said after meeting Raimondo at his office, where the latter signed the guest book.

Raimondo is on her first official visit to Asia from Nov 15-18 to meet with government officials and business leaders in Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.

The trip comes on the heels of US President Joe Biden's announcement on developing an economic framework to define its shared objectives with partners in Asia in key areas, namely supply chain resilience, digital economy and technology, common standards and supporting regional infrastructure projects.