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Malaysian Government adopts neutral technology platform policy

SERI KEMBANGAN: The Government is adopting a neutral technology platform policy that does not favour either open-source (OSS) or proprietary software.

The cabinet, said Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jamaludin Jarjis, has decided that government procurement policies will now be based on merit and not on platform choice.

"We want to focus on the development of job creation and industry growth, and as such, would like to be neutral," he said.

"The cabinet wants to encourage the further development of the local (IT) ecosystem with focus on value creation and it is up to the market to decide which platform they choose."

However, Jamaludin later told pressmen that the neutral technology platform policy does not void Mampu's Open Source Software Master Plan.

"If the market sees value in it (the OSS Master Plan), then it will continue," he said.

Full text of article

Source: The Star

Implied negativity

Posted by Khairil Yusof at 2006-11-23 07:43 AM

This speech reeks of lobbying. There is a current lack of "choice" and also the current situation of an IT ecosystem that doesn't lead to local value creation was and still is the result of a system based on proprietary standards and software with closed source. Removing FOSS preferences actually makes the situation worse, and does not help. However when one reads these kind of statements, it would almost seem that FOSS is the cause of existing problems in Malaysia.