This includes the goal to create a hyper-scale data centre with an expected investment of RM15 billion.
The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) welcomes the launch of the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint (MyDIGITAL) that YAB Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced last week.
The agency is excited about this initiative and offers its unequivocal support and commitment towards the success of MyDIGITAL based on MDEC’s three strategic thrusts, namely digitally-skilled Malaysians, digitally-powered businesses and attracting digital investments, to achieve a technologically integrated society in line with Malaysia 5.0 and further strengthen its position as the Heart of Digital ASEAN.
MDEC’s CEO Surina Shukri said, the launch of MyDIGITAL is seen as a positive action by the government to ride the rapidly growing global digital wave at this time, and that it is very important for Malaysia as a growing digital market in the region, to remain competitive.
Surina said, noted the agency also welcomed the conditional permission given by the government to four leading companies; Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Telekom Malaysia, to build and manage hyper-scale data centres and hybrid cloud services.
The essence of a successful digital economy is highly dependent on data, infrastructure and connectivity encouraging more innovation. As such, the goal to create a hyper-scale data centre with an expected investment of RM15 billion, will create room for innovation and public-private partnerships.
The National Digital Networking Project (JENDELA), which is said to strengthen existing connectivity with the target of nine million premises by the end of 2025, will make our country ready for 5G cellular technology in the near future. Thereafter, the 5G component will drive investments in innovation, through the speed that facilitates technology transfer, while creating more highly skilled jobs as well as making Malaysia one of the most competitive data catalyst markets in the world, encouraging more share and more open innovation,” she said.
Based on the new projection made by the Prime Minister, the digital economy’s contribution to the country’s GDP is expected to reach 22.6 percent by 2025. MDEC, with the full support of the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (KKMM), will continue to lead the digital economy forward; centred on ensuring shared prosperity for the many and towards realising Malaysia 5.0.
As per the MyDIGITAL announcement, MDEC is fully committed to rolling out key digital initiatives announced in Budget 2021 to ensure our society can fully leverage and benefit from 4IR technologies and establish Malaysia as the Heart of Digital ASEAN.
Surina added that MDEC is also excited to see that MyDIGITAL had placed importance on nurturing the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and micro-entrepreneurs on the e-commerce platform. This has remained one of MDEC’s most important initiatives.
“Based on MDEC’s record, currently, 335,834 SMEs and micro-enterprises are benefitting from the e-commerce market. MyDIGITAL is targeting to encourage a total of 875 000 SMEs and micro enterprises to accept the use of e-commerce and this is certainly an area that MDEC will bolster our efforts in, to ensure that this community is equipped with the right tools, platforms and skills to be successful in their digital transformation journey.
The government’s continued support for the start-up ecosystem is also projected to attract RM70 billion in new investments in the digital sector, from within and outside the country.
Currently, Malaysia’s start-up ecosystem has been ranked 11th place in the world with the highest score in terms of performance with the market valued at USD15 billion.
According to the Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2020 (GSER2020) by Startup Genome, Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur is ranked as the 11th emerging startup ecosystem in the world. This reflects the US$15 billion in ecosystem value that it has achieved in 2020.
In this regard, MDEC is ready to make the digital leap to achieve better results for the country and the people, “she said.
“All initiatives announced in the MyDIGITAL blueprint is believed to be the country’s new solutions to accelerate transformation in the digital economy while enabling various new opportunities including digital investment that will complement the national development programs which include the Twelfth Malaysia Plan (12MP) and the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030. This also proves Malaysia’s readiness to transform by adopting the ‘Whole of Nation’ approach,” she concluded.
