LIMA (Peru): Malaysia stands ready to align its policies to match new demands and ever-evolving industries in a multi-pronged approach to continuously attract high-value investments, says Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
For example, Malaysia is now talking about assessing the entire policy on water conservation, he said, citing the high demand for water by data centres.
“We have never encountered such a high demand for water except now by these data centres. I don’t know what they do with it, but they have been asking for more water, more energy,” he quipped at the session titled, “Opportunities and Challenges in the AI Revolution”, at the Apec CEO Summit here yesterday.
Other panellists in the session were Microsoft vice-president of Data & AI, Zia Mansoor, Vobile chief executive officer Yangbin Wang, and Google vice-president, government affairs & public policy, Karan Bhatia.
Also present at the session were foreign minister Mohamad Hasan and investment, trade and industry minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz.
The event at the Grand National Theatre of Peru was moderated by Apec Business Council (Abac) Canada member, Jan De Silva.
Anwar said there was also a need for skilling, up-skilling, training and exposure, changing the curriculum in universities, colleges, and schools.
To this end, Malaysia is successful because the government listens, he added.
“When our friends from Microsoft, Google, and Huawei come to us, we tell them to give us some time, let us listen to the requirement you have,” he said.
He added that public policy and governments cannot assume that they can go on inviting and attracting this sort of investment without being prepared to undertake major initiatives that will allow such investors to come in.
Anwar, who is also the finance minister, also acknowledged that the progress the country made in attracting investments was not without its set of challenges and bottlenecks.
“We were also stuck with some bureaucratic rules and we have to be able to coordinate or bypass this. Also, the system is not only about state governments, as we have municipalities. So, how do you cut across all this?
“But, if we could do it with one particular major investor. Then, it would just spread out,” he explained in the 45-minute session.
On a question about how this could be done in the context of Asean, Anwar said it requires effective coordination.
“We have a bigger framework, somewhat similar incentives, and we complement each other because other countries have the expertise, but no water, and some have energy. So, we are keen to have this sort of collaboration more effectively.
“I am proud to say that within Asean, we are already talking about an Asean grid, that will help, for example, create or provide more energy,” he said.