CYBERJAYA, Dec 9 — The National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan (NFCP) has received positive and solid cooperation from the state governments to help in achieving the targets of the project, said Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo.

He said that if in the past, a long time was needed to obtain approval to construct telecommunications infrastructure, but through discussions between the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission and the state governments, many obstacles had been resolved.

"So we get decisions much faster and this will help us considerably to achieve our targets in the NFCP,” he told reporters after visiting the NFCP Operations Room at the MCMC Tower, here today.

The Operations Room is equipped with metrics and dashboards which will focus on targets of the NFCP, quality of experiences and services as well as the monitoring of NFCP projects.

The data-driven approach will enable the MCMC to monitor the NFCP performance and implementation more effectively.

NFCP is a five-year plan (2019–2023) which, among other things, aimed to provide sustainable, comprehensive, high quality and affordable digital connectivity for the prosperity of the people throughout the country besides providing a conducive environment for the use of new technology such as the 5G.

The NFCP which was announced last Aug 28, gives a balanced internet access between the urban and rural people in efforts to reduce the digital gap.

Gobind said the telecommunication companies involved also provided cooperation when receiving for the first time a system where the industry could sit together with the government to expand telecommunication infrastructure in the country.

"And as far as possible, we can share the existing infrastructure which can directly bring down the costs involved and this will save time to expand the infrastructure,” he said

The minister said the NFCP was a very important plan to expand the existing infrastructure in order to create a good internet network in the country involving an allocation of about RM21.6 billion.

"I hope we can achieve this plan much earlier than the stipulated time (five years) and if possible using a much lower cost than the amount stipulated (RM21.6 billion),” he said. — Bernama