PETALING JAYA: Japanese conglomerate NTT has informed Malaysia that it is considering a new mega subsea cable from Japan to South-East Asia, with landing points in Sabah and Sarawak, says Transport Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.
He said the fact that NTT had asked him for government support proved that the current cabotage policy was no deterrence to the construction of new subsea cables with landing points in Malaysia.
The minister revealed this during an hour-long live debate yesterday with former finance minister Lim Guan Eng on the reimposition of cabotage for subsea cable repairs and maintenance in Malaysian waters.
The cabotage was lifted by former transport minister Anthony Loke starting April 1, 2019, but the exemption was revoked by Dr Wee on Nov 15 last year after he took over Loke’s role when the Pakatan Harapan administration fell.
“The fact that others have proposed new cables that have landing points in Malaysia proves that the cabotage policy for repair and maintenance did not affect investor confidence,” Dr Wee said as he summarised his argument.
Earlier, Lim cited a figure by former Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) chairman Dr Rais Hussin Mohamed Ariff, who had claimed that Malaysia stood to lose RM12bil to RM15bil in foreign direct investments as a result of the cabotage policy.
“We are losing billions of ringgit in the economy just so we can protect a company that paid taxes amounting to RM1.7mil in 2020,” Lim alleged.
Dr Wee also said Malaysia was not left out of any regional undersea cable projects as it was presently part of the MIST (Myanmar, Malaysia, India, Singapore, Thailand) project, an 8,100km subsea cable system that is due to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2022.
He said MIST would eventually be connected with the Apricot project, so Malaysia was still in the global connectivity loop with MIST landings in Tanjung Sepat and Morib, Selangor.
With the initial cost of the MIST cable system at about US$400mil (RM1.7bil), its investor is Orient Link Pte Ltd (OLL), a strategic joint venture between NTT Ltd, Fund Corporation for the Overseas Development of Japan’s ICT and Postal Services Inc and WEN Capital Pte Ltd, that was incorporated for international submarine cables in Singapore on Oct 10, 2019.
The Apricot subsea cable system is a 12,000km cable connecting Japan, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore.
Apricot will feature a state-of-the-art cable funded by a consortium that comprises Facebook, Google, NTT, Chunghwa Telecom and PLDT, with NTT responsible for operating and managing three cable landing stations in Japan, Singapore and Indonesia, while PLDT will build new cable landing stations in Luzon and Mindanao of the Philippines.
Dr Wee said the cabotage policy would give the first right of refusal for Malaysian companies, and that past alleged delays in approvals for foreign cable ships to do work in Malaysian waters was history.
“We now play the role of mediator and the approval process has been shortened to three days, and in several cases, only a day,” he said, adding that this was the way to build up local expertise in subsea cable maintenance and repairs.
He also said there were currently two Malaysian companies that had the capability to perform such work and they needed to be given the first right of refusal, rather than opening Malaysia’s doors to everyone else to come in.
“There is also the question of national sovereignty to consider,” said Dr Wee, who also clarified that the Apricot cable was planned in 2017, before he was in charge.
He also took Lim to task for repeating the unsubstantiated allegation that Malaysia stood to lose some RM12bil to 15bil on account of being “bypassed” by Apricot.
“In the first place, Malaysia was not even involved when Apricot was envisioned. The so-called losses are based merely on repeating what Dr Rais claimed. It has not been substantiated,” said Dr Wee.
He added that the approval process for the e-DSL (Domestic Shipping Licence) had been dramatically improved.
“If any party still faces problems, please come and talk to us,” he said, adding that similar cabotage policies could be found in neighbouring countries and in forms that could be more stringent.
Earlier, Lim argued that any delays to cable repairs could not be tolerated, not even by a few hours, given the high dependency on digital connectivity for things to move.