Microsoft, edotco back greater connectivity plan
KUALA LUMPUR: Microsoft Malaysia welcomes the 2019 Budget that focuses on people’s wellbeing, fosters an entrepreneurial culture and enables an inclusive society.
Its managing editor, K. Raman, said the company was committed to partnering Malaysia in the journey to become a developed nation, fuelling digital economy growth for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and other enterprises.
This would drive workforce skills development while ensuring healthcare and education access for all, he said.
Raman said among the key focus areas of the 2019 Budget was to continue building momentum for the digital economy with efforts to improve the physical and digital infrastructure that powered up the Industrial Revolution 4.0.
“We welcome measures for streamlining regulations related to digital economy while ensuring SMEs in Malaysia can innovate and continue to be in the forefront of development,” he said in a statement.
He pointed out that the government’s initiative to strengthen the connectivity in rural and remote areas with the implementation of the National Connectivity Plan reflected the commitment towards the digitalisation of the economy.
The drive for quality education is commended by Microsoft Malaysia, leveraging the company’s technology role as an enabler in providing 21st century education.
“To create a future skilled workforce, Microsoft is already working with the government to equip local universities with data science knowledge.”
He said the government’s intention to widen the public-private partnership programmes to improve healthcare facilities was encouraging.
Lauding the allocation for treatment of rare diseases, Raman said cutting-edge technologies like cloud and artificial intelligence were transforming healthcare.
“Globally, we have partnered pharma company Shire and the patient-driven non-governmental organisation Eurordis to accelerate the diagnosis of rare disease, a process that often takes years and a big toll on the health of millions. We look forward to bringing the same technology advancements over the coming year to Malaysia at the back of the budgetary allocations.”
Raman said Microsoft Malaysia looked forward to continued collaboration with the government.
Another tech company, edotco Group Sdn Bhd, lauds the government’s commitment to enable greater connectivity and efforts to develop broadband infrastructure.
Its chief executive officer, Suresh Sidhu, said the 2019 Budget reflected the government’s ambition of building a digitally connected nation through the National Connectivity Plan.
“As operators continue to connect fibre to homes, there is also a need to extend fibre to other infrastructures in Malaysia, especially if we want to be 5G-ready,” he said in a statement recently.
“To meet price and speed aspirations, we need to encourage more infrastructure sharing and adoption of fixed wireless access.
“At edotco, we look forward to partnering the government in driving Malaysia’s vision to provide high-speed Internet access to all.”