[ad_1]
KUALA LUMPUR: Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong said today that the revocation of the cabotage exemption for foreign vessels involved in repairing submarine cables is in the best interest of local industry players.
He told Dewan Rakyat that this would reduce dependence on foreign vessels and enhance “technical expertise through human resource development among locals.”
Yesterday, Malaysiakini reported that tech giants such as Microsoft, Google and Facebook had sent a letter to Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on the matter, warning that it would slow down future repairs and create a monopoly, as only one local company currently had the capacity to perform refurbishment .
Wee’s predecessor, Loke Siew Fook (PH-Seremban) said the exemption was vital for telcos as repair time took an average of 27 days.
“As Google, Facebook said, these are among the important factors for people to invest in the data centers of our country. What it has done has impacted these companies, who could lose confidence in investing in data centers, “he said.
In response, Wee said that data from damaged cables could be redirected to any of the 21 submarine cables in the country and that opportunities should be provided for local businesses under the Malaysian Shipowners Association (Masa).
He also rejected the claim that it would affect investments in the country, saying other countries also had similar policies.
This led Gobind Singh (PH-Puchong) to say that there was a lack of submarine cable repair experts in the country. He told Wee, “If you think the rerouting is a solution to the problem, then you don’t understand the problem at all.”
Wee refuted this, and while answering, he was confronted with shouting at Gobind, who accused him of cheating on the house.
At one point, Wee asked Gobind to sit down, and this prompted the DAP leader to reply, “You are not the speaker.”
Wee said he could provide the names of local companies that had the expertise, which Loke and Gobind disputed.
Wee, who was running out of time to respond, concluded by saying that the decision was not unilateral and was decided jointly by his ministry and the ministry of communications and multimedia, and the “stakeholders.”
“For me, we give Masa an opportunity, if within a certain period they don’t have the experience, we open it,” he said.
