Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (left, back row)and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong witness the signing of agreements between Malaysia’s Minister of International Trade and Industry Tengku Zafrul Aziz and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong at the Istana on January 30, 2023. (Photo: TODAY/Raj Nadarajan)
Hanoi (VNA) – Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his Malaysian counterpart Anwar Ibrahim on January 30 witnessed the signing of three bilateral cooperation agreements on the digital economy, green economy, personal data protection, and cyber security.
Anwar has been in Singapore for his first official visit to the country since he took office as Malaysia's 10th prime minister on November 24, 2022.
Malaysia’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry and Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry signed two agreements on the digital economy and green economy.
The green economy framework agreement is Malaysia’s first green economy agreement signed with any country.
The agreement is expected to tighten the two countries’ cooperation in decarbonisation and support enterprises and workers in taking advantage of opportunities that the green economy can bring.
The two countries will work together on the setting of standards and the deployment of charging points for electric vehicles.
They will exchange information on low-carbon solutions, including on technical and regulatory issues, and explore joint studies and demonstration projects, particularly in hydrogen and carbon capture, utilisation, and storage.
Within the framework of digital economic cooperation, the two countries will strengthen cooperation within the framework of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) as well as under the terms of the two agreements.
The agreement is also expected to promote the expansion of digital economic cooperation in ASEAN in areas including trade facilitation, cross-border data flows, electronic payments, digital identity, and supports for the digitisation of industries and small businesses to enhance their competitiveness.
Meanwhile, Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) and Malaysia’s Ministry of Communications and Digital signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that will enable them to cooperate on issues such as personal data protection as well as cybersecurity.
The MOU is expected to help authorities of the two countries to exchange information, expertise, and solutions in data protection policies, cross-border data flows as well as address common cybersecurity threats and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and distributed ledger technology./.
