- Government looking into overlapping tasks of ministries
- Policy on car imports to be reviewed when next national car project starts
- Alibaba Cloud launches second Availability Zone in Malaysia
- Skills Johor-PSDC MoU for Industry 4.0
- Prime Minister Hun Sen claims all seats in Cambodia’s election
Government sorting out overlapping tasks of ministries
Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the government is organising the agencies for placement under the relevant ministries to avoid overlapping of tasks. He said this was because new ministries had been created and the government was still in the process of distributing tasks to these ministries. “We are still organising the sections which will be placed under the ministries because we have new ministries and we have to distribute tasks to many ministers. “Sometimes, there is an overlap of tasks among the ministries and we have to rectify this, ” he said to reporters at the Parliament Lobby.
On the proposed second national car project, Tun Dr Mahathir said the government would be reviewing the policy on car imports to protect local production when it rolls out the next national car project. He said the policies by the former Barisan Nasional administration in the past 10 years had allowed too many imports of international cars, including those of dubious quality, that had stunted the growth of the country’s automobile market. He added that there were several factors that had made it difficult for Proton to penetrate the foreign market, which includes strict terms, conditions and policies that have been set by other developed countries,” citing high taxes and the Euro emissions standards, which limit the carbon monoxide emissions of new passenger cars, as examples. He added that the automotive industry was important for the country’s growth, adding that a new national car project would boost Malaysia’s engineering capabilities.
Alibaba Cloud launches second Availability Zone in Malaysia
ALIBABA Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, announced the launch of their second availability zone (Availability Zone B) in Malaysia to expand its cloud footprint and bolster its cloud capacity, serving increasing customer demand locally and in the region. The new zone complements Availability Zone A which was launched last year in heightening cloud security and ensuring business continuity through resilient cloud infrastructure. Alibaba Cloud will also continue to invest in Malaysia by setting up the first cloud based Anti-DDoS Scrubbing Centre in August. The centre will mitigate risks and offer customers the highest level of protection against stronger DDoS attacks. The new centre will feature a variety of security functions including Anti-DDoS Pro, a service that defends against all types of DDoS attacks. Minister of Communications and Multimedia, Gobind Singh Deo welcomes Alibaba Cloud’s effort to further support and enhance Malaysia’s digital economy. “The world moves ever closer towards e-commerce and we see a considerable surge in demand by local industries to participate in this new economy on a global platform. Malaysia is now pushing ahead with efforts to strengthen its infrastructure with a view towards making access to the Internet a basic human right and categorising facilities which enhance access to broadband as a public utility.” These new developments in Malaysia come on the back of a number of initiatives by Alibaba Cloud. Earlier this year, the company announced the collaboration with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) in the Malaysia City Brain Initiative to create a smart city powered by AI and big data.
Skills Johor-PSDC MoU for Industry 4.0
Skills Johor has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Penang Skills Development Centre (PSDC) to collaborate on completing the Industry 4.0 value chain and to support the industry needs in Johor. With the MOU, Skills Johor will be able to receive a boost with the appointment of PSDC’s top industry professionals who will be sharing their industry knowledge with the dedicated team of Skills Johor. Under the collaboration plan, committees will be appointed to represent both sides to discuss and draft new industry-driven technical programmes, including vocational and soft skills programmes and to explore ways to bridge the skills gap that exists in the current market. Skills Johor is the first technical and vocational skills training hub in Malaysia. Its objective is to improve the employability and entrepreneurship of Malaysians through quality TVET, relevant to current and emerging market and industry needs. It serves as a platform to provide and develop a suitably skilled workforce for the nation.
Hun Sen claims all seats in election
Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen claims its ruling Cambodian People’s Party had won all 125 parliamentary seats in a general election held yesterday. CPP spokesman Sok Eysan told said, “The CPP won 77.5 percent of the votes and won all the parliamentary seats. The other parties won no seats.” In the US, the White House said it would consider steps, including an expansion of visa restrictions placed on some Cambodian government members, in response to what it terms as “flawed elections” in which there was no significant challenger to Hun Sen. Critics say the election was a backward step for democracy in Cambodia following the dissolution last year of the main opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) and the jailing of its leader, Kem Sokha, on treason charges.
