KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) unveiled its five-pronged Digital Investments Future5 (DIF5) strategy on Monday which includes attracting investments and to create high-value jobs.
Two of the targets are to attract RM50bil investments in the digital economy and create 50,000 high-value jobs in the MSC Malaysia.
The third strategy focuses on five key industry sectors, five focus technologies, five emerging technologies and digital global business services.
The fourth is to attract 50 Fortune 500 tech companies to land and expand in Malaysia and the fifth is the establishment of five unicorns.
MDEC, which is Malaysia’s lead agency in digital transformation, said the DIF5 will focus on five key thrusts aimed at attracting investments and advancing Malaysia’s digital economy in line with the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint or MyDIGITAL.
The five-year initiative, which will run from 2021 to 2025 following the 12th Malaysia Plan, aims to secure high quality digital investments as it seeks to unlock new drivers of growth in the digital economy.
Cumulatively, MDEC has brought in RM345bil worth of investments via MSC Malaysia since 1996, creating 184,396 jobs, and housing 40 of the Forbes 100 companies in Malaysia.
MDEC senior vice president of investment and brand Raymond Siva said MDE has all the necessary capabilities, capacities and facilities to drive Malaysia’s digital economy into high gear.
MDEC senior vice president of investment and brand Raymond Siva.
“With the Future5 Investment Strategy, we are further synergising our efforts and initiatives to push the nation forward towards achieving the goals set forth in the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint (MyDIGITAL),” he said.
According to the statement, MDEC said the five industry sectors that have been identified as key drivers are: AgTech, HealthTech, Islamic Digital Economy and FinTech, CleanTech and EduTech.
“These industries are based on the strategic national industries for digitalisation and have also been mapped to the national priority sectors. Digitalisation of these industries will have a high impact on investment, jobs and contribution to GDP.
“More importantly, the size and potential of these sectors would also draw large global companies, where Malaysia could benefit from international partnerships with local companies and the resulting technology and knowledge transfer,” MDEC said.
Attracting and driving investments in five focus technologies are important to facilitate the growth of these sectors, namely; cloud computing, data centre, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and digital content tools.
MDEC said the digital economy is expected to continue its significant contribution to the country in 2021 based on an estimated 20% contribution to GDP in 2020 by Malaysia’s Statistics Department, on the back of a 6.7% economic growth forecast this year by the World Bank.
The Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint (MyDIGITAL), announced recently by the Prime Minister also projects a 22.6%contribution to GDP by 2025, targeting RM70bil investments and opening up 500,000 jobs within the digital economy.
