ICT: Cambodia Keen To Learn From Malaysia

[BERNAMA]

KUALA LUMPUR, July 23 -- Cambodia is keen to learn from Malaysia in the fields of cyberlaw, cybersecurity, e-commerce and e-government.

This was stated by Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Dr Sok An during his meeting with Malaysia's Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili in Phnom Penh yesterday.

According to a statement issued by Dr Ongkili's office today, Cambodia, which joined Asean in 1999, was seen as new in ICT development and held high regard for Malaysia particularly in its ICT development.

The country looked forward to gaining benefits from its Asean membership and working with its neighbours, it said.

Dr Ongkili was in Phnom Penh, leading a week-long specialised ICT trade mission to Indochina which also covered Hanoi and Vientiane.

While in Phnom Penh, Dr Ongkili also met Cambodian Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh who gave an assurance that his country "will always open its doors to Malaysia because you are very important to us".

Some areas Cambodia could gain from Malaysia's ICT capabilities included e-government, e-commerce and telecommunication, Cham Prasidh had said.

Malaysia was Cambodia's top investor and trade partner in the early 1990s before the economic crisis hit the region.

In 2010, trade between Malaysia and Cambodia amounted to US$229.7 million compared with US$168.7 million in 2009.

Total trade in the first four months of this year demonstrated more robust import-export growth of 59.6 per cent or at US$100.61 million compared with US$57.5 million in the corresponding period of 2010.

The Malaysian trade mission included the ministry's agencies -- MDeC, SIRIM, Nuclear Malaysia, BiotechCorp, Technology Park Malaysia, CyberSecurity Malaysia, MIMOS and .my Domain Registry -- and 13 ICT and biotechnology companies and Pahang state government officials.

Dr Ongkili, in summing up the Indochina trip which concluded today, described it as a successfully mission.

"We were warmly welcomed by our Indochina friends. Malaysia can also collaborate with these countries in the areas of alternative energy, biotechnology and biodiversity," he said in the statement.

A total of 97 business-to-business matching meetings were held and 14 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) on ICT and biotechnology collaborations were signed during the entire trade mission.

At the business session in Cambodia, MIMOS signed an MoU with its Cambodia counterpart, National ICT Development Authority.

Two other MoUs were signed between Malaysia's i-Solutions & Computing and Cambodia's CIDC Information Technology, and between Malaysia's Ceope Risk Technologies and Cambodia's S.I Group, to deploy ICT solutions and applications.

Aside from the Malaysians, about 350 participants and companies including from the banking, ICT and insurance sectors joined the three business sessions.

"They see Malaysia as more advanced as we developed our ICT industry much earlier. These countries are the emerging markets for ICT in this region and they are keen to gain from knowledge and technology transfer from us," said Dr Ongkili.

During the visit, Dr Ongkili also launched the Asean Digital Innovation Institute at the LimKokWing University of Creative Technology campus there.

The institute will conduct applied research in digital economy, run strategic training programmes tailored to respective country's needs and act as a think-tank for ICT-related matters for the Asean region.