Anwar Holds Virtual Meeting With Google President

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Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim during the virtual conference with Google president and chief investment officer Ruth Porat this morning. (Facebook pic)PETALING JAYA: The importance of cooperation and the need to support technology and artificial intelligence (AI) in the education, health and agriculture sectors were among the topics discussed during a virtual conference between Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Google president and chief investment officer Ruth Porat today.
Anwar said the conference was a follow-up to their meeting last year, after which Google and Putrajaya announced a strategic collaboration to help Malaysian businesses advance their digital competitiveness through skilling programmes, investment in digital infrastructure, responsible AI innovation and cloud-first policies.
He said Porat updated him about the progress regarding the tech giant’s potential areas of expansion in Malaysia based on his previous explanation to her about the government’s mission and focus.
“I emphasised that these efforts must ultimately bring comprehensive economic and social benefits without leaving any community behind, especially in terms of technology literacy,” said Anwar in a Facebook post.
“I hope these efforts will bear fruit, particularly in the country’s technology transition and the creation of job opportunities.”
He said Google and its parent company, Alphabet, welcomed the leadership, commitment and speed of facilitation shown by the  government since their last meeting.
Anwar met Porat, Google Asia Pacific president Scott Beaumont and Google global vice-president of government affairs and public policy Karan Bhatia during a working visit to San Francisco last November.
Last Thursday, the investment, trade and industry ministry announced that Microsoft Corp would invest RM10.5 billion in cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure in Malaysia over the next four years.
In 2021, the US tech giant had pledged to invest RM4.12 billion in Malaysia over five years to build hyper-scale data centres and provide cloud services. - FMT

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