Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) has launched a data exchange network for open data sharing to combat COVID-19, using its creative arm TM Research & Development Sdn-Bhd (TM R&D).

In a statement, TM stated that the one-stop data exchange center aims to facilitate and accelerate data sharing between Malaysians and the world to enable pandemic research.

This initiative will improve access data to developers, students, medical professionals, and government agencies, with full support from the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), and provide new insights into the pandemic, ultimately opening the way for important breakthroughs.

TM said that the one-stop center for data interchange would also allow industries to better understand consumer behavior changes, patterns of movement, and corporate impacts, thus enabling governments and economists to see the effects on certain sectors that were not apparent at the initial stage.

"The knowledge can also be made accessible on (on the platform) changes in the shopping habits or whether the people spend more or less on beauty products, traveling patterns, the use of transit, and human movement.

Sharlene Thiagarajah, Chief Executive Officer of TM R&D, stated that it was a strong advocate of "open data" sharing to harness the power of the population to gain deeper insight into the current pandemic.

The Data Exchange platform, which aims to the collection and disseminates pandemic data, pools all of the data into one focus and empowers researchers, data scientists, and analytics to step up efforts to find solutions to COVID-19, said MDEC Director of Data Ecosystem Development, Karl Ng Kah Hou.