Nine Quotes from Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim at the APEC CEO Summit 2024
Prime Minister of Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim emphasized the critical role of AI in driving digital transformation in emerging economies, highlighting the need to address the digital divide and ensure equitable access across urban, rural and heartland areas. He identified ethical considerations, data protection, and upskilling young professionals as key concerns. Here are nine quotes from his intervention on “Opportunities and Challenges in the AI Revolution” at the 2024 APEC CEO Summit.
1. “If we want to ensure that an emerging economy succeeds, remains competitive and sustainable, then it has to be to a quantum leap. AI is, of course, the answer for now.”
2. “We have to address, first, the digital divide. We can't talk ‘Economy Madani’ and ‘Madani Economy,’ which talks about trust, humanity, justice, democratization of access, if we do not take into consideration that all the measures of opportunities are given to the urban, rural and heartland. It requires additional infrastructure investments.”
3. “Secondly, the other concern is the issue of ethics; the issue of data protection. The input that we provide or place into AI is pertinent, which means upskilling, getting a core of our competent young professionals to be able to understand and involve themselves in the entire planning and also strategizing the need.”
4. “Malaysia must remain competitive, neutral.”
5. “Public policy and governments cannot assume that they can go on inviting and attracting this sort of investment without being prepared to undertake major reform initiatives which would allow these agency or investments to come in.”
6. “We have to listen. The way we do things is not to assume that political leadership has all the answers.”
7. “These are new technologies that's challenging, and it is something that demands our immediate reaction.”
8. “We must sit down at least for one or two hours with our top players—the politicians, bureaucrats, academicians, experts, to be able to share experience.”
9. “Technology is changing so fast, which means government leaders have to accept them, acknowledge that we have to also change the pace of a normal government bureaucracy to an extent that it is really competitive and attractive.”