THE cabinet will review the cabotage policy exemption for submarine cable repair vessels, said Khairy Jamaluddin.

He said that seven ministers have been instructed to discuss the matter and report back to the cabinet in two weeks with proposals.

“The ministers for international trade and industry, finance, transport, economic planning unit, entrepreneur development and science and technology were instructed to deliberate the impact on digital investments and local shipping industry,” said the Science and Technology minister in a tweet today.

The Perikatan Nasional (PN) government has come under criticism lately for reversing the cabotage exemption for foreign vessels repairing undersea data cables.

Shortly after PN took over, newly appointed Transport Minister Dr Wee Ka Siong revoked the exemption, which was put in by Pakatan Harapan transport minister Anthony Loke.

Wee’s decision has been blamed for billions of ringgit worth of investments lost as tech giants Facebook and Google chose to pick Indonesia and Singapore to set up their data centres instead of Malaysia.

The MCA president’s decision was also criticised by Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) chairman Dr Rais Husin, who said in a statement that there are strong industry sources indicating three new cables originally planned to be landing in Malaysia are now under review.

“Also under review are potential data centre investments worth RM12-15 billion in foreign investment.”

He said Malaysia needs such investments more than ever and the country could not afford “to play the same old, same old protectionist games”. – April 14, 2021.