Digital Malaysia to advance Digital Economy with Three Strategic Thrusts

Kuala Lumpur, 5 July 2012 – The Deputy Minister of Science, Technology & Innovation (MOSTI), YB Datuk Haji Fadillah bin Haji Yusof today unveiled details of Digital Malaysia, a national programme based on three strategic thrusts to advance the country towards a developed digital economy by 2020. He did this with Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, Chief Executive Officer of the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), an organisation under MOSTI, which was mandated by the Prime Minister, YAB Dato' Sri Haji Mohd Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak to steer the programme.

Speaking at the event, YB Datuk Haji Fadillah bin Haji Yusof said, “Digital Malaysia is a unique programme based on its three strategic thrusts. It will create an ecosystem that promotes the pervasive use of ICT in all aspects of the economy to connect communities globally and interact in real time resulting in increased Gross National Income, enhanced productivity and improved standards of living.(From L to R) YBhg. Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, CEO of Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), YB Datuk Haji Fadillah bin Haji Yusof, Deputy Minister of Science, Technology & Innovation (MOSTI), and Y. Bhg. Dato Dr. Madinah Mohamad, KSU MOSTI, are seen officiating the Digital Malaysia initiative.

“The Digital Malaysia programme’s three strategic thrusts will leverage on new and existing initiatives to drive Malaysia towards a digital economy. By effectively combining existing ICT and digital initiatives, Digital Malaysia will foster a cohesive digital ecosystem that will ensure Malaysia becomes a developed digital economy,” he added.

Digital Malaysia is underpinned by three (3) strategic thrusts that have been identified as critical game changers:
• Move Malaysia from being supply to demand focused, i.e. initiating more demand-focused activities to leverage existing infrastructure, economic activity, market trends and consumer behaviour;
• Shift behaviours from being consumption to production centric, i.e. encouraging and enabling internet users to produce as much as they consume from digital technologies;
• Evolve from low knowledge-add to high knowledge-add i.e. increasing development of local talent in key industries to become innovators and knowledge workers.

Digital Malaysia will deliver its targeted goals via a number of projects. Currently eight (8) projects have been identified and are being rolled-out from this year. They include the Asian e-fulfilment Hub; e-Payment services for small and medium businesses and microenterprises; Shared cloud enterprise services, Microsourcing for income generation, Accelerated international trade through e-Commerce, On-demand customised online education; Growing the embedded systems industry and a Mobile Digital Wallet.

The Digital Malaysia programme is a dynamic one and will continuously evolve with an ongoing ideation process and mechanism leading to the development of new projects in the coming years.

Ultimately, Digital Malaysia aims to help Malaysia raise its ICT contribution to 17% of GNI; raise its ranking in the Economists’ Intelligence Unit Digital Economy Rankings to be within the top 20 and also be within the top 10 of the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) World Competitiveness Yearbook.

An estimated investment value of RM 31.2 billion is expected to be generated from Digital Malaysia based on a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model, which is expected to create 160,000 jobs and make the overall Digital Economy contribution to GNI, RM294 Billion (17%) by 2020.

From a productivity standpoint, Digital Malaysia is expected to contribute 1% to the projected absolute growth of SME contribution to GDP by 2020. In terms of impact on standard of living, the programme targets to deliver an additional RM7,000 per annum for 350,000 citizens from digital income.

Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, CEO of MDeC, said “Digital Malaysia is unique because of its strategy which is built on three strategic thrusts. It will help to create a new class of digital entrepreneurs through our demand-focused initiatives and it will help nurture a new generation of Digital-savvy youth through the use of digital learning who will form the bulk of Malaysia’s workforce from 2020. Digital Malaysia will also help drive automation and technology adoption amongst SMEs to boost productivity”.

“Today Malaysia enjoys a strong ICT foundation, but a holistic digital initiative is still needed to ensure that Malaysia is able to advance further and Digital Malaysia with its three strategic thrusts, will ensure this ,” added Badlisham.

Digital Malaysia is under the stewardship of the Digital Malaysia Steering Committee led by YB Datuk Seri Panglima Dr. Maximus Johnity Ongkili and reports to the Prime Minister.

Industry Commentary on Digital Malaysia Announcement

Tan Choon Sang, Country Manager, Autodesk Malaysia
Autodesk is very excited with the announcement by Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) to propel the nation towards a developed digital economy by 2020. One of the major global forces that exerts great pressure on companies and the economy is the advent of technology and “digital” lifestyles. While ICT adoption feeds on the age of access and experience, the rise of consumer and mobile computing opens up opportunities for businesses to drive productivity and innovation.

We believe that with emerging digital tools and the fast-developing opportunities from infinite computing, the newly set up ecosystem under Digital Malaysia will promote an environment for businesses to up their game in the global marketplace. The market demands that companies innovate in order to remain competitive, achieve greater operational efficiencies and profitability. Thus, digital tools such as Autodesk Digital Prototyping and Building Information Modeling provide the opportunity to level the playing field for business of all sizes to create, compete and thrive.

At Autodesk, we certainly welcome this development and we look forward to being part of the ecosystem that pushes the boundaries of what is possible in the design and engineering market. Digital Malaysia is yet another step forward to empower and prime the marketplace for a truly developed digital nation.

Masaya Ueno, President and Chief Executive Officer, Rakuten Online Shopping
The demands of consumers today are changing and the spheres in which they inhabit and consume for their lifestyle needs are no longer confined. The advent of e-commerce has unlocked a borderless world on the Web for merchants to expand their businesses and provided consumers with broader options for their shopping and service needs. Digital Malaysia is set to enable businesses to grow and capitalise on opportunities in the digital economy with greater integration of ICT.

Rakuten welcomes the unveiling of Digital Malaysia. Having just announced Rakuten’s market entry in Malaysia, we are encouraged by the Government’s commitment to drive Malaysia towards a digital economy. We believe that initiatives under Digital Malaysia will strengthen the nation’s e-commerce industry and encourage merchants to leverage opportunities online as a natural next step for their businesses.

Merchants hoping to expand their customer reach online should determine the right partner that will not only empower them with the e-commerce platform but also share the tools and e-commerce knowledge needed to build a successful online business. Rakuten provides an innovative e-commerce business model that is a WIN-WIN for both merchants and consumers alike.

Nafis Jasmani, Country Manager, Axis Communications, Malaysia
Axis Communications applauds the government’s fostering of ICT as the backbone of business, productivity, trade and social development in Digital Malaysia. This initiative augurs well for the adoption of IP-based or network video surveillance given that public safety continues to be a top priority for the government and its various stakeholders.

Video surveillance has stood the test of time as the go-to technology for obtaining information around crime and security related incidents. The network video is one of the most useful tools for fighting crime and protecting citizens, acting both to detect and deter. It creates a secure environment and helps first responders pinpoint where their assistance is most needed. Today’s IP-based surveillance cameras can offer several enhanced features such as sharper image quality, motion and tampering detection.

Digital Malaysia will ease the transition of video into the IP world and enable businesses to embrace and reap the benefits of the advancements in video analytics. With digital surveillance, the authorities can offer the best security solutions to create a wide-area security net, so that both the nation’s assets as well as the rakyat continues to be safe and secure. We are convinced that Digital Malaysia will bring the country one step closer to fulfilling its ambition to improve the standard of living of the people and making the country a safer place to live in.

Zulkifli Md Ghairi, Country Manager of CA IT Infrastructure Solutions Sdn Bhd.
CA Technologies applauds the Malaysian Government’s efforts to advance the country towards a developed digital economy by 2020. We are strongly encouraged by the government’s efforts to promote the use of ICT to improve productivity and the standard of living in the country.

We believe that, businesses have to innovate to drive competitive differentiation, find new revenue streams to accelerate growth and obtain increased value from ICT in order to fully leverage the opportunities in a digital economy. ICT provides companies with the necessary tools to manage cost and risk, reduce delivery cycle times, and enable increased productivity.

Digital Malaysia promises to fast forward Malaysian enterprises to embrace the benefits of cloud computing, virtualization and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), improving productivity and competitiveness. Whether a company is operating a private cloud, or in a hybrid environment – it all has to be managed and secured, which is the expertise of CA Technologies for over 35 years. CA Technologies supports Digital Malaysia’s efforts in empowering enterprises to manage and secure their IT and accelerate their delivery of business service innovation, and is convinced that this will bring us closer to the vision of becoming a developed nation.