TRANSPORT Minister Wee Ka Siong today challenged Lim Guan Eng to debate the cabotage policy impacting the undersea internet cable industry.

Wee (Ayer Hitam-BN) said he was ready to debate with Lim (Bagan-PH) on the issue of the loss of foreign investment due to the government revoking cabotage exemption for high-tech companies. 

“I’m ready to debate with Lim. Last time (Lim) said I was not qualified to be MCA president.

“I now challenge (Lim). For an hour we can discuss,” he told the Dewan Rakyat. 

Lim accepted the challenge from Wee and asked him to set the time for the discussion.

“I accept the challenge. Set the time and I will be there.” 

Wee was replying to Lim, who asked about the status of the loss of foreign investment from the Apricot, Facebook and Google projects amounting to an estimated RM12-15 billion by Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC). 

This, Lim said, followed the Perikatan Nasional government’s policy of revoking the cabotage exemption for high tech companies granted by the Pakatan Harapan government. 

Lim said that Wee was in a state of denial and didn’t want to admit that the policy drove away investments coming into the country. 

“This is not coming from the opposition. This is coming from MDEC chairman Dr Rais Hussin himself, who said Wee had made a mistake.

“If we are wrong, we have to make it right. So, can this cabotage policy be cancelled because you (Wee) said that there was no connection?” 

Wee denied that his reversal of the cabotage exemption for undersea repair vessels had caused the loss of foreign investments from the Apricot, Facebook and Google projects.

“The cabotage policy has been around since Tun’s (Dr Mahathir Mohamad) time. What the MDEC chairman said is not true. 

“These projects were diverted due to the trade wars between the US and China.” 

The MCA president said that Rais was wrong to say that the reversal of the cabotage exemption had affected investments. 

Repeating what he told Parliament last week, Wee said that the time needed for Domestic Shipping Licence (DSL) has been reduced to three days and that 10 DSLs have since been given to foreign vessels undertaking undersea cable repair work. 

In April, Rais wrote that Wee’s reversal of the exemption had affected foreign investments in undersea cable projects. 

“When Malaysia started to attract data centre investments, one of the key issues highlighted by both foreign investors was the long delays in obtaining permits for submarine cable repairs – prior to 2019 the average was 27 days, with one case taking longer than 100 days.” 

Rais said that local telecom companies with submarine cable investments like Telekom Malaysia and Time DotCom also appealed to the government to exempt submarine cable repairs from cabotage. 

“Hence, in April 2019, the then transport minister Anthony Loke issued an exemption order. This was positively received by investors and local telcos and plans were made to land cables in Malaysia. 

“However, in November last year, Wee had revoked the cabotage exemption for submarine cable repair, much to the surprise of investors and local telcos. 

“This reversal is a step backwards, as investors have expressed strong interest and some were in the final stage of committing investments, recognising that the exemption will reduce repair times and increase reliability,” Rais wrote in a column. – September 30, 2021.