The added investment will improve the country’s international connectivity as well as that of South East Asia. With a completion date of Q2 2020, the network infrastructure project brought about by this partnership will be exclusively used to support Facebook and its applications.
“Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to build communities and bring the world closer together. This partnership will allow us to build a faster and more efficient network to better support our family of apps and services,” said Nico Roehrich, Facebook’s network investment manager for APAC.
Malaysia was chosen as the location of choice due to its position as an East-West gateway, enhancing the growth of the country’s digital economy.
“We look forward to the prospects that this partnership offers, as it opens the door for Malaysia to establish itself as a regional technology hub,” added Chiew Kok Hin, head of OTT at TIME. “More international connectivity and a robust domestic backbone will attract sizeable investments into Malaysia. It only makes sense for us to capitalise on the strategic location of Malaysia in Southeast Asia, ease of access and relatively lower cost of entry.”
Additionally, the Malaysian Government has been hard at work reviewing policies, laws and regulations to adapt to the ever-changing global landscape. For example, the Ministry of Transport has simplified its regulatory approval process by revising its existing cabotage policy so that local and foreign vessels carrying out subsea cable repairs within Malaysian waters can avoid delay.
“The joint effort between the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia is in line with the National Ferberisation and Connectivity Plan (NFCP) to promote investments in undersea cables and encourage the deployment of landing centres in Malaysia,” said Gobind Singh Deo, communications and multimedia minister. “Malaysia strongly encourages all undersea cables planned for deployment in this region to land in Malaysia to take advantage of the cabotage exemption for undersea cable repairs. With more undersea cables and a faster cable repair approval process in place, Malaysians can enjoy faster and more reliable Internet access to international sites.”
