International trade and industry minister Azmin Ali said the government had given approval to AWS to invest in the country.
However, AWS had said it still had some things to iron out with Mida, the international trade and industry ministry and the finance ministry.
“As this involves high quality new technology, the government is prepared to study the requests made by AWS in order to encourage quality investments in Malaysia,” Azmin told Bernama after meeting representatives of AWS here yesterday.
“We are discussing several new incentives which are more innovative and attractive to AWS so that it will build more data centres in Malaysia.”
AWS, a subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc, is a pioneering giant in the provision of cloud computing services.
Azmin said the discussions had resulted in a better understanding of the incentives that AWS requested, which were being considered by his ministry and the finance ministry.
“We are confident that the negotiation process will be finalised soon because for Malaysia, this investment is important to accelerate the digital technology transformation process in Malaysia,” the senior minister said.
Before the meeting with AWS, Azmin met with representatives of Microsoft Corporation, where the company said it was committed to train local talent through the “Bersama Malaysia Microsoft” initiative launched in April last year.
“I have been informed that almost 500,000 local workers have been trained since the beginning of this year, and I am confident the target to train over one million local workers will happen by 2023,” he said.
Azmin said Microsoft and AWS were also prepared to provide input to the government in its efforts to enhance the country’s competitiveness in the digital economy.
“The presence of these companies will accelerate the transformation and adaptation of digital technology, which will help to generate sustainable growth in the country.
“Such investments are in line with the aspirations of the MyDigital policy, which aims to provide Malaysians access to digital technology, especially industries, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs),” he said.
On his meeting with Ammex Corporation yesterday, Azmin said the company was prepared to expand its glove imports from Malaysia.
Some 60% of the company’s glove imports are sourced from Malaysia.