
Malaysia Digital Free Trade Zone - diehell
https://mydftz.com/
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walrus01
You only need to google "Malaysia internet sharia law" to understand why it
would be a very poor idea to invest in datacenter/telecom infrastructure in
Malaysia, domestically. The government is going the same direction as Turkey
recently.

[https://www.google.com/search?q=malaysia+internet+sharia+law...](https://www.google.com/search?q=malaysia+internet+sharia+law&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8)

In my opinion it's ethically the same as deciding to operate a datacenter in
mainland China and sign up for all the government laws, regulations and
oversight that goes with it: You can do it from a technical perspective, but
many US based companies have explicitly chosen not to do so based on their own
ethical standards.

~~~
toomanybeersies
It's not even just the government.

I wouldn't store any confidential/secure data in a country that you can bribe
cops for relatively trivial sums in. That does end up writing off most of the
world for storage, admittedly.

~~~
ernsheong
Most startups in Malaysia use services like S3 storage and host their
databases elsewhere, which are not based in Malaysia (usually Singapore,
Japan, US, etc.) At my first startup job my boss insisted to never store any
data in Malaysia because he was kinda paranoid. If a Malaysian startup does
that is it still a concern for international users?

I'm Malaysian and I'm wondering what the perception is for an international
user if a SaaS business is known to be from Malaysia.

For the record, bigwig companies like Grab had its roots in Malaysia. Only
when they started getting big they moved to Singapore, perhaps due to such
perception issues, and also talent.

Anyway, I've lived and grown up in Malaysia, and all I can say is that while
the system ain't perfect, but daily life goes on with normalcy and I'm not so
sure about the FUD portayed in comments.

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geff82
As an alternative I want to mention the very convenient Dubai Internet City,
which is a free zone next to the Dubai Marina district. I was there, left a
good impression on me, and the also have no big problem when you trade with
other non-freezone companies in the UAE. Microsoft, Oracle and IBM all have a
place there.

~~~
happyslobro
Ditto, relocated there from Doha. It is conveniently close to a large cluster
of AirBnBs, which helps out big time while waiting for a resident's permit.

~~~
geff82
How long did it take you to get a resident's permit? Seemed to me like this
process would be quite fast.

~~~
happyslobro
It probably could be fast, if you have all your ducks lined up. UAE
immigration wanted me to go back to Canada to pick up a fresh notarized copy
of my educational and criminal records.

I really don't understand why this kind of thing can't be done over a video
conference, and then printed, stamped, scanned, emailed, printed locally. But,
I got a nice little trip to my hometown out of it, so whatever.

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danielvf
Is this just a normal free trade zone with "digital" tacked onto the name?

~~~
contingencies
Cynically: No, it's "Cyber" prepended to "jaya" (used to mean "city" in
Malaysia, but apparently derived from Sanskrit for 'victory', ie. a place
where a battle was won) - ie. a rebranding of "The city at the place of the
victory of the battle of Cyber" to "digital free trade zone".

Realistically: Maybe in part. It looks like in part they are trying to
challenge Singapore for air freight logistics. Unfortunately KLIA is miles
from KL and nobody really lives out there, so even though you get "express
freight handling" the only major nearby markets accessible by road are
Singapore and KL (plus some second-tier peninsular Malaysian cities) and in
the former case you have to pay to cross another border.

Amusingly: On their promotional video they tout the future as being
"borderless" \- quite funny as KL is known to be a global center for forged,
modified and stolen passports and other identity documentation.

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jpatokal
Sounds like a branding refresh for the Multimedia Super Corridor:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSC_Malaysia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSC_Malaysia)

~~~
amirbehzad
It is.

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mark_l_watson
re: first video on page: I like Jack Ma and often agree with him, but his view
on globalization is I think incorrect. Sure globalization has helped lift many
people in the world out of poverty (good thing!) but I can't buy into giving
up countrys' rights to have their own laws and I think preserving local
culture is important.

So, globalization is a 'mixed bag.'

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vinceyuan
Oh, when I read the title, I wrongly thought it's Digital-Free Trade Zone, a
trade zone without any digital methods. :D

