COMMENTS BY TAN SRI DATO’ SRI ZAMZAMZAIRANI MOHD ISA GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, TELEKOM MALAYSIA BERHAD ON BUDGET 2014

TM would like to congratulate the Government on yet another inclusive, entrepreneurial, well balanced and well intentioned Budget for 2014 in line with this year’s theme - “Fulfilling Promises, Accelerating Transformation” - putting the interests of the Rakyat, addressing current challenges of modern urban living whilst not forgetting the issues of rural communities and the stable, sustainable development of the nation clearly as priorities.

Specifically on ICT, under the National Broadband Initiative, we applaud the Government’s decision to expand the High Speed Broadband Project to the second phase or the HSBB2 Project. This is on the back of the successful first phase of the HSBB project which was a proud achievement for Malaysia; elevating the nation to emerge as the highest in terms of number of high speed broadband subscribers in South East Asia and one of the most acknowledged fast track project roll-outs globally.

As Malaysia's Broadband Champion, we are committed to continue our role in expanding broadband reach holistically across urban, sub-urban and rural areas and enhancing our broadband user experience. For Broadband for General Population (BBGP) especially in underserved areas, we will continue to strengthen our fixed line services while exploring other alternative technologies in line with our broadband services delivery strategy for the nation and look forward to working together with the industry in making this happen.

The establishment of the submarine cable network to serve the bandwidth capacity requirements of Internet users in Sabah and Sarawak is much welcomed in anticipation of increasing future capacity requirements and the ever-growing data needs. It is envisaged that there will be tremendous growth of data over the next few years and it is in tandem with an increasingly dynamic and high growth business environment in Malaysia, tied with the exponential rise in Internet usage.

The announcement of the 1Malaysian Entrepreneurial Nation (1MeT) and the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) are also particularly timely to boost the competitiveness and innovativeness of our young entrepreneurs. On TM’s part, we are already working closely with Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) and StartupMalaysia.org (SUM) in introducing the first corporate accelerator programme in Malaysia to help accelerate the growth trajectory of high potential digital entrepreneur startup companies to tap global demand with innovative products and services. Together with our full suite of comprehensive SME packages, TM is certain we can help support the growth of entrepreneurship ventures.

In line with the government’s effort of developing the creative and content industry,  with particular mention of the Pinewood Studio in Iskandar,  Johor;  TM’s education arm, Multimedia University (MMU) has introduced the Bachelor of Cinematic Arts (Honours), also known as the Cinematic Arts Programme (CAP) in collaboration with the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California (USC). With the introduction of the programme, and leveraging on our Content and Services Development Platform, we aspire to transform the landscape of the Malaysian entertainment and content industry.

In closing, TM reiterates our commitment as the nation's trusted partner in telecommunications services towards the Budget 2014 initiatives - in driving the Malaysia's economic growth further through our shared aspirations to generate innovation driven, value adding activities that can deliver an enhanced and integrated digital lifestyle to Malaysian homes and complete end-to-end solutions for Malaysian businesses.