KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia Internet Exchange (MyIX) hopes that the 2020 Budget will unveil more incentives to further develop Malaysia’s digital economy and Internet connectivity.
MyIX chairman Chiew Kok Hin said these were two extremely critical areas for the country’s success in the 4th Industrial Revolution.
"MyIX is keenly looking forward to policies around these two areas when the 2020 Budget is announced,” he said in a statement today.
Chiew believes that the establishment of a new digital content ecosystem (DICE) policy to strengthen the local digital content industry will ultimately position Malaysia as the leader in digital content creation and production in the region is a step in the right direction.
The DICE announcement was made by Minister of Communications and Multimedia Gobind Singh Deo last month.
Gobind had stated that Malaysia was attractive to digital content and creative tech studios due to its youthful demographic, access to talent with cultural influences and a higher education system that has a focused tech-track.
Chiew believes the DICE policy would attract more foreign investments and continue building local talent, while strengthening the ecosystem through government and private sector partnerships.
MyIX is an initiative under the Malaysian Communications Multimedia Commission through the operation of local internet service providers (ISP) to connect and exchange internet traffic locally.
It was established to keep Malaysian internet traffic local by promoting and allowing direct connectivity among local independent service providers (INSP).
“Today, it is the country’s only non-profit national internet exchange body and operated by industry,” said Chiew.
He is also looking forward to more details about the National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan to further provide high quality and affordable nationwide digital connectivity.
“The NFCP would serve as Malaysia’s backbone in the 4IR as the world moves into 5G,” he said, noting that in September 2019, MyIX recorded 500Gbps of traffic, a 25 per cent traffic growth from December 2018.
To date, MyIX has 110 members/peers with 100 per cent coverage for both fixed and mobile service providers, including recently signed-up peers such as Netflix and China Mobile International (M) Sdn Bhd.
“Throughout Southeast Asia, MyIX offers the lowest port fees with capability of reaching to all Malaysian internet users in a single connection,” Chiew said.
He also shared that MyIX recently completed its network refresh to 100Gps port capabilities, stating that the upgrade would enable Malaysia’s bandwidth expansion for the next five years in addition to managing growing Internet usage.
MyIX is also encouraging international ISPs and content providers to invest further in Malaysia.
“By having foreign INSPs and content providers setting their regional networks here it will reduce the network charges of consuming international content,” said Chiew.
In November 2019, MyIX with the Malaysia Network Operators Group will be hosting in Kuala Lumpur Peering Asia 3.0, an event to encourage discussion of contemporary topics in Internet interconnection.