Budget 2024: Good news on 5G, cost of living and food security issues, says Fahmi

SHAH ALAM: Budget 2024, which will be unveiled on Friday (Oct 13), will have several good announcements that will address issues pertaining to 5G, the cost of living and also food security, said Fahmi Fadzil.

“We hope there will be good news on the implementation of 5G. What we did previously were special packages to help more Malaysians benefit from 5G.

“But I believe for other ministries, the government will focus on the issue of cost of living, which is heavily discussed now, the food supply chain and also food security.

“There will be several announcements but I can’t speak more than this,” said the Communications and Digital Minister after officiating a DHL event in Shah Alam on Thursday (Oct 12).

“God-willing, at 4pm on Friday, we will witness Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim table Budget 2024. We shall wait for some good news then,” said Fahmi.

Previously, Anwar said the Health Ministry and Education Ministry will continue receiving the largest allocation in the Federal Budget.

Budget 2024 will be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat on Friday

Meanwhile, Fahmi said the proposed second 5G network provider will build a parallel network to the existing 5G network by state-owned Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB).

“If something were to happen on the first network, there’s a second network that we can fall back on,” said Fahmi.

“Based on conversations with the industry, we expect to reach 80% of coverage of populated areas within a very reasonable amount of time. not too dissimilar from the rollout that we are seeing today,” added Fahmi.

Fahmi had previously said a decision will be made about the second 5G network provider by mid-October.

He had said on Oct 6 that discussions with mobile network operators (MNO) involving a taskforce comprising of his ministry officials, the Chief Secretary to the Government and the Treasury secretary-general, are currently ongoing.

As of the end of September this year, Malaysia achieved 70.2% coverage in its 5G network rollout.

Putrajaya is aiming to achieve 80% coverage by the end of this year.