The Malaysian ICT industry has been urged to use technology to save energy.
EU Ambassador and head of the EU delegation to Malaysia, Vincent Piket said this includes the use of video-conferencing to reduce carbon emissions.
The ICT industry, he said, needed to make greater efforts to reduce its own carbon footprint.
“We do not immediately regard ICT as a polluting industry. However in the EU, ICT equipment and services alone account for about 8% of electrical power used and about 4% of carbon emissions,” said Piket in his welcoming speech at the ICT Goes Green In Malaysia 2010 round table discussion here yesterday.
He said Malaysian ICT companies should adopt practices, like the EU, to save energy.
“If we were to replace just 20% of all business trips with video-conferencing, this could save more than 22 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emission per year,” he added.
He noted that Malaysia’s policies, including the New Economic Model, the 10th Malaysia Plan and Economic Transformation Programme, were increasingly conducive to green growth.
However, he said there was still much to do to realise Malaysia as a global hub for ICT and multimedia services including green ICT.
“We can be a partner to Malaysia in facing some of the challenges, including building the right ICT infrastructure to increase access to high-speed Internet and investing more in research and development to ensure green ICT ideas reach the market,” he said.
Such partnerships, Piket said, would come about easily with The Malaysia-European Union Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
He said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has expressed he would like to conclude the FTA within 18 months.
Other speakers were Nokia Siemens Networks Malaysia chairman Tan Sri Rainer Althoff, Rentwise Sdn Bhd managing director Emily Kok, Ericsson Malaysia technology strategy director Dr Timothy Senathirajah and NFE Consulting Sdn Bhd CEO and principal consultant Nur Faezal Elias.
