By YBhg Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, Chief Executive Officer, Multimedia Development Corporation Berhad (MDeC)
Despite a record-breaking year in 2011, with revenue touching RM 31.7 billion, surpassing the RM30-billion mark for the first time since MSC Malaysia’s inception in 1996, developing and enhancing marketing capabilities of our companies has been a key area of concern and focus in 2012.
To this effect, we have implemented programmes which will have strong impact on every sector of the ICT industry which include propelling MSC Malaysia status companies to break into key emerging markets via a comprehensive private sector driven programme; a mentoring and partnership model known as “stacking”.
Stacks are essentially a consortium of companies with a set of non-competitive, complementary and interoperable solutions, led by an anchor company in sharing and operating within common target markets. This approach increases market exposure for new players via channel buyers or “superbuyers” as well as develop MSC Malaysia status companies to match market demand and expectations.
Having achieved numerous successes in developing the local ICT industry, our role has been expanded further to ensure the infusion of ICT into all sectors of the economy. This is where our latest effort in launching Digital Malaysia comes in.
Digital Malaysia is anchored on three key strategic thrusts that are aimed at creating an ecosystem which promotes the pervasive use of ICT in all aspects of the economy; to connect communities globally and to interact in real time resulting in increased Gross National Income, enhanced productivity and improved standards of living The initiative aims to increase Malaysia’s ICT contribution to GNI from 9.8% to 17% or RM294 billion and create 160,000 high value jobs by the year 2020.
2012 has been undoubtedly a challenging and exciting year for the Malaysian ICT industry. Challenging due to the economic slowdown in the Eurozone as well as delayed growth in the United States, which did impact our exports considerably, as 22 percent of our ICT exports are targeted at these markets. However, the impact was cushioned by Malaysia’s growing trade ties with Asia and other emerging markets, in particular Indonesia, Vietnam, China and other ASEAN countries which accounts for nearly 58 percent of our total ICT exports.
As we look ahead into the year 2013, we believe that the telecommunications industry in Malaysia will remain strong. This will be further enhanced by the roll out of the 4G LTE network next year which will increase not only internet speed, but also data traffic, accessibility and mobility of the internet to more users and businesses.
For MDeC this is indeed the move in the right direction for Malaysia as we begin the implementation of the initial eight projects under the first wave of Digital Malaysia: the Asian e-Fulfillment Hub, Enabling e-Payment Services for SMEs and Micro Enterprises, Shared Enterprise Services, Develop On-Demand Customised Online Education, Microsourcing to Generate Income for the B40, Facilitating Societal Upliftment, Establish a Trusted Mobile Digital Wallet Platform and Growing the Embedded Systems Industry; all of which will require the right infrastructure in place, such as greater internet access and speed in order to be implemented successfully.
In meeting industry demands, MDeC has over the years executed and will continue to execute various programmes on a national level to strengthen and surpass the achievements of the 2012 Malaysian ICT industry. We believe that the Malaysian ICT industry will continue to perform well overall. This is especially in light of the global ICT industry forecast, which is expected to grow by 3% in 2013 with global ICT spending estimated to reach USD$3.7 trillion, which is an improvement compared to an earlier estimate that pegs global growth at 2.5%.
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