Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is in Silicon Valley visiting both Facebook and Google’s headquarters. This visit is part of a series of high-level discussions, demonstrations, announcements, organized by the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC). MDeC is behind Malaysia’s digital economy initiative, known as Digital Malaysia, and the national ICT Initiative, known as MSC Malaysia.
During Najib’s trip, he met with Founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. They discussed how to improve internet accessibility and increase digital opportunities for the unconnected.
This discussion relates to an initiative called Internet.org, which was founded by Facebook, Ericsson, Media Tek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm, and Samsung. The Internet.org initiative aims to make internet available for the next 5 billion people. The initiative is tackling three main issues in developing countries: making internet access affordable, using data more efficiently, and helping business drive access.
Najib said, “The goals are aligned with the aspirations of Digital Malaysia, which seek to digitally empower more Malaysians to seize the opportunities in the Digital Economy.”
Facebook is one of the most visited sites in Malaysia, and there are over 12 millions Facebook users in Malaysia.
During the trip, Najib also met with senior officials at Google and also met with nine Malaysian Google employees. Apparently, there are more than 20 Malaysians working at Google in fields related to IT.
SEE ALSO: Facebook Rejected Malaysian Government’s Requests for User Data
Sources: NST.com.my, Borneo Post, The Malaysian Insider
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