Digital policies can’t rely on old silo approaches, says Microsoft exec

Microsoft’s Asean regional director Jasmine Begum said keeping data physically in-country does not automatically create sovereignty if the data is not properly classified and protected. (AFP pic)

PETALING JAYA: Governments cannot build digital policies using old silo approaches designed for a different era, says Microsoft’s Jasmine Begum.

The software giant’s Asean regional director of corporate external and legal affairs said policymakers must rethink how regulations are shaped as artificial intelligence, data centres and other digital infrastructure cut across sectors.

“The challenge with public policy today is that we live in a digital world but hope to build up digital policies using analogue principles.

“That’s not going to work,” she said during a panel session at the launch of University of Nottingham Malaysia’s Asian Institute for Policy and Engagement at Menara Axis here today.

Begum said Malaysia attracts investments in data centres and AI infrastructure, adding that Microsoft’s data centre in Malaysia serves not only Malaysians but the wider Southeast Asian region.

However, she cautioned that this did not automatically resolve wider questions around data governance and sovereignty.

Begum said policymakers often spoke about data sovereignty without clearly defining what it meant, adding that keeping data physically in-country did not automatically create sovereignty if the data is not properly classified and protected.

“If you don’t classify your data, then that’s a problem,” she said, adding that countries risk “protecting paperclips and diamonds the same way”.

Begum cited healthcare as an example of laws failing to keep pace with digital change, saying old rules could limit the movement of medical data even when it was practical and necessary.

“In the analogue world, the health ministry would have said that an X-ray does not leave a room. But today, there is data mobility,” she said.

Former deputy international trade and industry minister Ong Kian Ming also said complex issues such as electric vehicles (EV) and data centres required coordination across ministries, agencies and industries.

He cited the national EV task force as an example, saying it had helped resolve early issues such as whether fire department requirements were needed for the installation of EV charging stations at condominiums.

“You need a lead ministry and minister to coordinate such activities. Even if you have a high-level panel, you still need to operationalise it at the working level. You need very clear parameters and guidelines,” he said.