MyIX Chairman, Chiew Kok Hin
MyIX Chairman, Chiew Kok Hin

MyIX Hopes Budget 2020 Will Include Greater Incentives for Digital

Business

The Malaysia Internet Exchange (MyIX) hopes that Budget 2020 would unveil more incentives to further develop Malaysia’s Digital Economy and Internet Connectivity.

“These are two extremely critical areas for the country’s success in the 4th Industrial Revolution,” said MyIX chairman Chiew Kok Hin.


“MyIX is keenly looking forward to policies around these two areas when Budget 2020 is announced,” he added.

In particular, MyIX believes that the establishment of a new Digital Content Ecosystem (DICE) policy to strengthen the local digital content industry and ultimately position Malaysia as the leader in digital content creation and production in the region is a step in the right direction.

The DICE announcement was made by Minister of Communications and Multimedia Gobind Singh Deo last month.

“Malaysia is attractive to digital content and creative tech studios due to its youthful demographic, access to talent with cultural influences and a higher education system that has a focused tech-track,” Minister Gobind had stated.

Chiew believes that the DICE policy would attract more foreign investments and continue building local talent, while strengthening the ecosystem through government and private sector partnerships.

MyIX is an initiative under the Malaysian Communications Multimedia Commission through the operation of local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to connect and exchange Internet traffic locally.

It was established to keep Malaysian Internet traffic local by promoting and allowing direct connectivity among local independent service providers (ISPs).

“Today, it is the country’s only non-profit national internet exchange body and operated by industry,” said Chiew.

Chiew is also looking forward to more details about the National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan to further provide high quality and affordable nationwide digital connectivity.

“The NFCP would serve as Malaysia’s backbone in the 4IR as the world moves into 5G,” he said, noting that, in September 2019, MyIX recorded 500Gbps of traffic, a 25% traffic growth from December 2018.

To date, MyIX has 110 members/peers with 100% coverage for both fixed and mobile service providers, including recently signed-up peers such as Netflix and China Mobile International (M) Sdn Bhd.

“Throughout Southeast Asia, MyIX offers the lowest port fees with capability of reaching to all Malaysian internet users in a single connection,” stated Chiew.

Chiew also shared that MyIX recently completed its network refresh to 100Gps port capabilities: “The upgrade will enable Malaysia’s bandwidth expansion for the next five years, in addition to managing growing Internet usage.”

MyIX is also encouraging international ISPs and content providers to invest further in Malaysia.

“By having foreign ISPs and content providers setting their regional networks here, it will reduce the network charges of consuming international content,” said Chiew.

In November 2019, MyIX with the Malaysia Network Operators Group (MyNOG) will be hosting in Kuala Lumpur Peering Asia 3.0, an event to encourage discussion of contemporary topics in internet interconnection.

“MyIX also helps build essential technical skills across Malaysia, supports Internet infrastructure development, provides public peering and is an active participant in the multi-stakeholder model of Internet cooperation and governance throughout the country,” concluded Chiew.