KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 — The National Care Standards for Older Persons and Persons with Disabilities is expected to be launched in October this year as part of ongoing efforts to strengthen Malaysia’s care economy framework.

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said the standards are currently under development, following continuous discussions to establish clear benchmarks for quality care services, including expectations for providers within the care sector.

“We are developing standards of care. This is still in the discussion stage and is expected to be launched in October.

“I am pleased to have heard the views of the industry players involved, including the challenges faced and the suggestions for improvement put forward,” she said after delivering her keynote address at the ABAC Malaysia Care Economy Roundtable 2026 here today.

She also noted that ongoing discussions continue to generate new ideas, reflecting the evolving nature of the care sector, which requires continuous refinement and policy enhancement.

Earlier in her keynote address, she said the standards would serve as a key governance instrument to strengthen the quality, safety and accountability of care services nationwide.

“They are intended to establish minimum standards of care, safeguard the dignity and rights of care recipients, and promote greater consistency in service delivery across institutional, community-based and home-based care settings,” she said.

Nancy said investment in the care economy is no longer merely a social welfare issue, but a critical economic imperative to ensure Malaysia’s future productivity and resilience.

She said addressing caregiving gaps and enabling greater labour force participation could contribute about RM77 billion annually to the national economy, equivalent to around five per cent of gross domestic product.

Citing research by the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia, the minister said unpaid care and domestic work are estimated to be worth RM379 billion annually, while about 3.2 million Malaysians face constraints in full labour force participation due to caregiving responsibilities.

Nancy also noted that Malaysia is undergoing significant demographic changes, with the total fertility rate declining from 6.0 births per woman in 1960 to around 1.6 currently, below the replacement level of 2.1.

To address these challenges, she said the Malaysia Care Strategic Framework and Action Plan 2026-2030 represents an important step towards establishing a more structured and coordinated national direction for the care ecosystem. — Bernama

SINGAPORE, June 12 — Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Microsoft Corporation have established a partnership to deepen collaboration on artificial intelligence (AI) safety and security.

In a joint statement, the two organisations said the collaboration reflects their commitment to ensuring AI development remains safe, secure and trustworthy.

Under the memorandum of understanding signed on Friday, IMDA and Microsoft will collaborate in three key areas, aimed at building a trusted ecosystem that fosters innovation while ensuring the safe and reliable development and deployment of technology.

These include technical and research collaborations on AI safety and security, facilitation of information sharing, and development of a policy framework for trusted access to frontier AI models.

IMDA deputy chief executive Kiren Kumar said the collaboration on AI safety with Microsoft demonstrates how government and industry can partner to drive and scale good governance for the public good.

“This goes beyond developing policy frameworks towards jointly building benchmarks, tools and other evaluation methods, concretely advancing the state of evaluation sciences in an area of increasing importance,” he said on Friday.

Meanwhile, Microsoft Chief Responsible AI Officer Natasha Crampton noted that the partnership combines government insights with Microsoft’s technical and operational experience to strengthen AI evaluation, address emerging risks and build greater trust in advanced AI systems. — Bernama