KKMM keen to learn Facebook's data management on COVID-19 management programme

PUTRAJAYA, Feb 6   — The  Communications and Multimedia Ministry (KKMM) is keen to share  Facebook's experience on its involvement in COVID-19 vaccination programme in several countries as a guide for Malaysia to carry out a similar programme, said its Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.

He said Facebook is involved with many countries in the management of COVID-19, including in countries that have conducted the COVID-19 vaccination programme using Facebook software to manage data,  such as the data of recipients of the vaccination and areas involved.

Through such a collaboration, Saifuddin said, Facebook would have identified countries with  best practices for vaccine management to address the pandemic.

"Certainly there are best practices even though it is new. We do not want to be,  for example country A, its vaccination management is successful and smooth,  and country B, wit many hiccups. So, we do not want to be like country B, "he told Bernama after a talk, conducted virtually, with the United States-ASEAN Business Council (US-ABC) yesterday.

Saifuddin said he had forwarded the wish to a Facebook representative who was also present at the US-ABC virtual discussion and “they seem to agree to share their experiences”.

“I ask them to share the best practices because we cannot fail in this programme due to the high cost of the vaccination, which is very much needed for the country. So, learning from other people's experiences is not a loss," he added.

Saifuddin said Facebook could share their experiences with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and also the Ministry of Health directly or through KKMM as an intermediary for the two ministries.

Besides Facebook, others involved in the US-ABC discussion included  Amazon, Cisco, C&M International, Oracle, Qualcomm, Seagate, Stripe and Google.

Saifuddin said the discussion, which lasted more than an hour, touched on cyber security, cloud first policy, regulations related to digital service taxation, digital transformation, connectivity and COVID-19 pandemic management.

-- BERNAMA