Islamic military counter-terrorism coalition welcomes M’sia’s bid to lead IT, digital devt programme

KUCHING: The member states of Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC) welcome Malaysia’s proposal to lead the ‘Information Technology (IT) Literacy and Digital Resilience Development Programme’.

This was highlighted in a statement issued in connection with the second meeting of the coalition, held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia recently, which was attended by Deputy Defence Minister of Malaysia Adly Zahari.

The statement also said two officers from the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) had been assigned to the Counter-Terrorism Centre (CTC) of the IMCTC since last year, meant to demonstrate Malaysia’s commitment to combating terrorism regionally and internationally.

“The meeting gathered 42 member countries and discussed relevant initiatives to be steered by member countries.

“It was aimed at addressing the threats of extremism and violence internationally in four focus domains: restricting the spread of ideology, communication, blocking terrorist financing, and military cooperation,” said the Defence Ministry in the statement.

In addition, the IMCTC member countries had collectively agreed to lead initiatives in various forms including funding, training, expertise and skills.

On the proposal for Malaysia to lead the IT literacy and digital resilience development programme, the Defence Ministry said the scope would cover developing, creating, producing and disseminating media content related to violence and extremism.

The programme would focus on the youths in IMCTC member countries, it added.

Moreover, the Defence Ministry said towards manifesting the strong defence cooperation between Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, Adly had accepted the invitation from the Saudi Arabian government to visit the World Defence Show (WDS), held concurrently with the second meeting of the IMCTC.

“The WDS 2024 is a significant platform that brings together various players in the defence industry to showcase the latest defence technology across land, air, sea and cyber domains.

“In this short-duration visit, Deputy Minister Adly and his delegation had the opportunity to meet key international players in the defence industry to keep abreast of the latest developments in defence technology, equipment and assets,” it said, adding that at WDS 2024, the Malaysian delegation also promoted the Defence Services Asia 2024 and National Security Asia 2024 Exhibition (DSA 2024 & NATSEC Asia 2024), scheduled to take place this May 6-9 in Kuala Lumpur.