M'SIA AND S'PORE TO COOPERATE IN INTERNET SAFETY - MINISTER

SINGAPORE (Bernama) - Malaysia and Singapore have agreed to
establish cooperation in the area of Internet safety including exchange of
experts, said Malaysia's Information Communicaton and Culture Minister Dr Rais
Yatim.

He said cooperation between the two neighbouring countries in this field
would enable a gathering of experts to assist both in addressing Internet safety
issues including hacking.

"When a country faces the threat of hacking, other countries cannot keep
quiet. We should help them and they to help us when it happens to us through
sharing and exchange of data and information to avoid the government websites to
continue to be hacked."

Rais said this Tuesday after opening the Malaysia Pavilion at the
CommunicAsia Convention 2010 held at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre,
here.

Before the opening ceremony, Rais held a bilateral discussion with his
Singapore counterpart Dr Yaacob Ibrahim at the meeting room located in the
pavilion.

Rais said website hacking would become a security issue if not tackled
effectively.

He also said that in his meeting this morning with Tetsuo Yamakawa,
Vice-Minister for Policy Coordination, Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and
Communications, cooperation to ensure Internet safety was also touched on.

Rais said one of the 13 areas of cooperation between Malaysia and Japan in
the telecommunications field, involved safety programming for computer systems
and the Internet.

On another note, Rais said he would propose a framework for closer
cooperation in addressing the issue of Internet safety at the Asian
Communications Ministers' Meeting to be held in Myanmar at the year-end.

He said at the moment, the countries of Asia did not have a clear
cooperation framework for tackling the Internet safety threat.

On creative content, Dr Rais said the time had come for Asia to use creative
content that mirrored the culture and lifestyle of its people.

"We cannot import 100 per cent of the creative content from foreign
countries that do not reflect Asia and Asian values," he said, adding that
millions of customers would want the creative content to portray the cultures of
Asia.

Rais this issue would also be tabled at the Myanmar meeting.

Also present at the opening ceremony were Rais' counterpart from Brunei,
Pehin Abdullah Bakar, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission
chairman Khalid Ramli and the Malaysian High Commissioner to Singapore,
Hussin Nayan.