Zahid: Complete projects for the people
KOTA BELUD: Projects started by the private sector to benefit the people must be followed through and completed, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said.
The Deputy Prime Minister said these projects were approved by the Government and were aimed at providing jobs and better services to the people.
“So they must come into fruition and not be left hanging,” he said at the ground breaking of the East Malaysia International Internet Gateway (EM-IIG) at Kampung Rampaian Laut, some 90km from Kota Kinabalu, yesterday.
Dr Zahid said the proposed EM-IIG being undertaken by Xiddig Cellular Communications Sdn Bhd is particularly important for Sabah as it provides faster Internet connections for the state apart from creating 4,000 job opportunities here.
EM-IIG, he added, is part of the Government’s commitment towards ensuring Internet access to all Malaysians.
He noted that since April 1, students and senior citizens have been able to use facilities at the 1Malaysia Internet centres for free.
“We want to see the development and usage of communications technology in this country to grow by leaps and bounds because it will change the way we work and do business,” he said.
During his visit to Sabah yesterday, Dr Zahid also attended Hari Raya open houses hosted by several leaders.
EM-IIG is set to tap into the EACC2C telecommunications submarine cable linking Europe and St Louis in the United State, passing through the South China Sea, about 400km from here.
The project will see a 60-terabyte fibre optic submarine cable linking the EAC-C2C international telecommunications cable to a landing facility at Kampung Rampaian Laut.
Xiddig chief executive Musa Rahman said work to lay the 60-terabyte submarine cable will begin in September and once completed, it will enable a much faster connection than the existing 150-gigabyte cable that is providing Internet access for Sabah.
He said the RM850mil project includes the region’s first Tier 4 data centre, the only such facility outside of Hyderabad, India.
“It will be a data centre with the highest capacity for hosting servers and could potentially attract businesses in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and the Philippines, which would want to keep their servers in an area free of natural disasters,” he explained.
The final phase of the project, he said, will feature a cybercity, an extension of the Multimedia Super Corridor, on a 10ha site here.