Most of the local news media have quoted Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi saying that Google is interested in setting up a base in Malaysia. Apparently, Google CEO Eric Schmidt met with our Prime Minister at the World Economic Forum in Davos and expressed interest in expanding its mighty reach to our humble shores.
Malaysiakini (subscription required) further reports Abdullah stating that Malaysia's policies "are supportive of the company's (Google's) activities". While we don't know exactly what he meant by "Malaysia's policies", we could presume he meant our focus on ICT growth.
The question then becomes what sort of presence does Google intend to set up? In the South East Asia region, Google already has an ad office in Singapore, which, when opened, was supposed to represent the entire region including Malaysia. When opening its Singapore office, Google also stated that Singapore's environment is very conducive to business and that the government's support was vital.
Further south, Google has a larger presence in Australia where its Sydney offices houses Sales, Support, Systems Operations, Engineering and more. It also has a sales office in Melbourne. Google's Sydney office is
its base for the Asia-Pacific region.
Therefore, the question remains - What role does (could) Malaysia have for Google, and is it all just hot air? Are our policies really any good?
source: Lowyat.net
