PRIME Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has to step in and reverse the decision by Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong to remove the cabotage exemption given to undersea cable repairs as it costs billions in losses, said Steven Sim.

Due to the decision, Malaysia has lost RM15 billion in tech investments by not being included in the Apricot subsea cable project spearheaded by tech giants Google and Facebook, said the Bukit Mertajam MP in a statement.

“Since the transport minister is clearly deluded and continues to live in denial of the harmful impact of his decision, I urge Prime Minister Ismail Sabri to intervene and overturn this decision to restore Malaysia’s competitiveness in the digital economy.”

The US$300 million (RM1.2 billion) Apricot project involves the construction of a new 12,000km subsea cable system that will connect Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan and Guam – bypassing Malaysia.

The cabotage exemption was first introduced by then transport minister Anthony Loke during the Pakatan Harapan administration. It was made for submarine cable repair vessels in March 2019, after complaints of undersea cable repair delays by the tech giants.

Wee reversed the exemption in November last year.

On Tuesday, the Communications and Multimedia Ministry in a parliamentary reply said Malaysia was not selected to join the Apricot project due to the unresolved cabotage policy issue.

“Wee’s cabinet colleague understood that it is our unresolved cabotage policy that caused Malaysia to be excluded by the tech giants in the Apricot project, as pointed out by Lim Guan Eng and ex-Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation chairman Rais Hussain,” said Sim.

“For reasons only known to him, Wee continues to live in denial. As a result of his stubbornness, he caused Malaysia to be continually excluded from a project that the communications and multimedia minister has deemed much-needed and important.” – October 8, 2021.