AGENDA ITEM 6:
EXCHANGE OF VIEWS ON DEVELOPMENT IN THE DIGITAL SECTOR
MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND DIGITAL MALAYSIA
AT THE 3RD ASEAN DIGITAL MINISTERS MEETING (ADGMIN3) BORACAY, PHILIPPINES, 9-10 FEBRUARY 2023
Your Excellency Ivan John E. Uy,
Chair of the 3rd ASEAN Digital Ministers Meeting
Excellencies Digital Ministers of the ASEAN Member States,
ASEAN Secretary-General, Dr. Kao Kim Hourn,
Distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen,
Selamat Pagi, Good morning and Magandang Umaga!
1. I am privileged and honoured to be here today for the first physical meeting of the ASEAN Digital Ministers and would like to take this opportunity to thank the Philippines for the warm and hospitable welcome, and congratulate our Philippines colleagues on the successful hosting of the ADGMIN3 in this beautiful Island of
2. I would also like to welcome Your Excellency Ivan John E. Uy, Secretary of the Department of Information and Communications Technology of the Philippines, as the incoming chair. I trust that under your chairmanship, ASEAN will continue to drive the digital transformation development in line with the ASEAN Digital Masterplan 2025 (ADM2025).
Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen,
3. Allow me to share Malaysia’s journey and vision with regards to the very apt theme of this meeting “Synergy towards a Sustainable Digital Future” in line with the ASEAN Digital Masterplan 2025.
JENDELA
4. Access to and Adoption of digital services are crucial, for the digital economy and also in achieving the many targets of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030.
5. In terms of Access, Malaysia’s Jalinan Digital Negara, or JENDELA for short, was formulated to accelerate Malaysia’s digital connectivity, narrow the digital divide, provide quality and inclusive telecommunication services whilst readying the country for 5G.
6. Approximately 7.44 million premises have received access to fibre broadband while 95.82 per cent of all populated areas have access to 4G networks up to date.
Pusat Ekonomi Digital (PEDi)
7. In terms of Adoption, initiatives such as the Pusat Ekonomi Digital (PEDi) (or Digital Economy Centres) were established in order to encourage the use of digital technologies and drive utilisation of the ubiquitous and quality digital infrastructure, particularly in rural areas and among the urban poor.
Cybersecurity
Ladies and gentlemen,
8. As we strive towards an inclusive digital ecosystem, it is also important to ensure the security of important data and personal information. Cyber threats are constantly evolving, and becoming frequent and sophisticated globally with severe consequences.
9. The Malaysia Cyber Security Strategy 2020-2024, was designed with tools to provide trust in a cyber environment, to support Malaysia’s agenda in its digital economy, Industry 4.0 and the adoption of other disruptive technologies.
10. Malaysia feels that this is an opportune time for us to focus on collaboration, especially among the ASEAN Member States, in the field of cybersecurity to ensure that the digital ecosystem will be safe and secure.
Scams
11. With the number of netizens increasing by the second, we can also see that online scams are on an upward trend, not only in Malaysia but globally.
12. Hence, Malaysia began giving extra attention to managing the scam issue with the establishment of the NATIONAL SCAM RESPONSE CENTRE (NSRC) 997 in the final quarter of 2022.
13. This is a joint effort between the National Anti-Financial Crime Centre (NFCC), Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM), Central Bank of Malaysia (BNM), the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), as well as financial institutions and the telecommunications industry.
14. Malaysia welcomes Thailand’s proposal during the ADGSOM, which was to take affirmative action with regards to Online Scams and ensure that the ADGMIN take positive steps towards measures to reduce or stop online scams.
15. As Online Scams come in different forms and could be interpreted differently among Asean Member States, Malaysia would like to propose that a framework to fight online scam be developed, either through the Cybersecurity Coordination Committee or through a new working group to be established after due consideration of the Asean Secretariat.
Misinformation and Disinformation Ladies and gentlemen,
16. Like in many other countries, the circulation of fake news, misinformation and disinformation in Malaysia skyrocketed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
17. Disinformation impacts citizens, and addressing it is a new and important challenge for governments.
18. The measures include promotion of strong norms on professional journalism, supporting investigative journalism, and improving digital literacy among the public.
19. Malaysia has an effective fact-checking portal, sebenarnya.my (https://sebenarnya.my/), for the public to verify information and news. This portal has proven to be a success with an average of 4.8 million hits in a month.
Data Protection
Excellencies, distinguished delegates,
20. Malaysia believes that data governance is an effective tool to ensure that data is not misused or abused while preserving the consistency, integrity and trustworthiness of the data.
commercial transactions and ensures personal data is protected and governed effectively throughout the data lifecycle, from the point of collection to disposal.
Conclusion
22. Being 650+ million strong and one of the fastest growing digital markets in the world presents an opportunity for us to synergise and raise the overall ecosystem value in order to attract more digital investments into ASEAN.
23. We are fortunate that while we work towards keeping ASEAN digitally connected as a region, we have with us our Dialogue Partners to see that ASEAN stays digitally connected to the rest of the globe.
24. Nevertheless, as the technology world continues to grow and evolve, I hope that ASEAN Member States continue to flourish as one, and overcome emerging and future challenges in order to safeguard the lives and livelihoods of our people in achieving a resilient, sustainable and dynamic community, with no one left behind.
Ladies and gentlemen,
25. I would like to take the opportunity to invite representatives from the regulatory agencies, relevant government ministries, telecommunication service providers, broadcasters as well as equipment manufacturers or vendors from the ASEAN countries to
attend one of our signature programmes, the Converged Telecommunications Policy and Regulations (CTPR) Masterclass programme, which will be held on 15-19 May 2023, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
26. The programme is organised based on a tripartite agreement between MCMC, Multimedia University (MMU) and GSMA, and is co-hosted by Cambodia Academy of Digital Technology (CADT) and Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia (TRC) and Smart Axiata Co. Ltd.
27. I wish all of us a productive and fruitful meeting.
Terima Kasih, thank you and Marami salamat!
Prepared by:
International Division
Ministry of Communications and Digital Malaysia
