RM4bil 'Bersama Malaysia' initiative will strengthen Malaysia's potential as data hub, says PM

PUTRAJAYA: The RM4bil “Bersama Malaysia” initiative with tech giants Microsoft Corp will strengthen Malaysia’s potential as a regional data hub, says Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

“As we cement this partnership with Microsoft today, I hope this is just the first green shoots of a broader meadow of investments in Malaysia, for Microsoft and other data players.

“This significant investment from Microsoft further fortifies Malaysia’s position as a potential regional data hub and we stand ever ready to welcome more such partnerships as we work with our stakeholders to continually improve Malaysia’s value proposition in this big data space, ” said the Prime Minister in his keynote address when launching the Microsoft “Bersama Malaysia” initiative here on Monday (April 19).

Under the initiative, Microsoft will establish its first data centre region in the country to deliver trusted cloud services locally.

The company also announced plans to help upskill an additional one million Malaysians by the end of 2023 to help create economic opportunities for people and businesses in the digital era.

“The plan under the Bersama Malaysia initiative includes its first data centre region in Malaysia to manage data from various countries, ” said Muhyiddin.

He added that according to the International Data Corporation, the ripple effects of the data centre region investment could translate to US$6.9 (RM28.3) of revenue generated in the local cloud ecosystem for every US$1 (RM4.2) of Microsoft Malaysia’s cloud revenue by 2024.

“It is estimated to help create 19,000 jobs including 4,000 IT-related jobs among its cloud users.

Secondly, to leverage big data, Malaysia requires a backbone of skilled human capital with data science capabilities, ” said Muhyiddin.

“In this vein, I welcome the many public-private partnerships formed by Microsoft and its partners, which I am made to understand, will help add skills in up to one million Malaysians by the end of 2023, ” he added.

Muhyiddin then said that he hoped this could be a template to bridge the digital divide and empower each Malaysian through technology adoption.