Twenty-five years after its creation, the Multimedia Super Corridor still plays a key role in Malaysia's ICT journey
MALAYSIA is one of the nations in the region that have well-planned information and communications technology (ICT) initiatives for a digital economy.
Many technological achievements that we see and use today may not have been realised without having a good and strategic initiative, such as the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), a grand move to put Malaysia on the next wave of the economy.
When former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad launched Cyberjaya on May 17, 1997, it was hard to imagine just exactly how much the world would change and affect Malaysia. That year also saw the creation of the MSC Malaysia International Advisory Panel, which aimed to gather the world's most influential ICT leaders, thinkers and researchers to lend their expertise towards accelerating Malaysia's ICT industry.
The MSC was envisioned as an impetus of new things, such as new cyber laws, new types of entertainment, new means of healthcare delivery, e-commerce, the Internet, and many new wonders of technology.
Twenty-five years later, much of what was envisioned has evolved beyond what was even thought possible. The MSC has established a strong ICT base for the country in spurring the economy.
Steered by Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) as the caretaker of the project, from just 95 MSC-status company in 1997, there are 2,824 MSC companies up to Dec 31, 2019, bringing in RM345 billion worth of investments, RM530 billion in revenue, RM189 billion worth of exports, and 183,369 jobs.
Moving ahead, the MSC Malaysia Next Leap was announced in July 2004, to cover the period between 2004 and 2010.
It was during this time that 10,000 schools were transformed into smart schools. This broad education policy initiative eventually led to initiatives like MyDigitalMaker, which impacted more than 2.1 million students and equipped more than 90,000 teachers with digital skills.
In 2005, during the 10th anniversary of the MSC, Saladin: The Animated Series was previewed, signifying the start of Malaysia's digital content industry. This paved the way for locally produced series such as Upin & Ipin, Boboiboy and Ejen Ali to become international success stories.
MDEC also unveiled the Digital Investments Future5 Strategy, a five-year plan aimed at attracting digital investments and advancing Malaysia's digital economy following the 12th Malaysia Plan.
All these plans are part of a massive concerted effort in line with the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint (MyDigital) and the National Fourth Industrial Revolution Policy that aims to develop Malaysia into a high-tech nation by 2030.
Let's take a look at some of the top initiatives of MSC since its inception.
1. #MyDigitalMaker Movement (2016-present)
The #MyDigitalMaker Movement is a joint public-private-academia initiative to transform Malaysian youth from digital users to producers in the digital economy. This includes skills such as coding, app development, 3D printing, robotics, embedded systems and data analytics, all of which will ultimately help to strengthen problem solving and creativity among the current and future generations. To date, the initiative has impacted close to 2.2 million school students through various programmes, such as #Educator Readiness and #CikguJuaraDigital. And 90,000 educators nationwide have been trained in the application of Computer Science and Computational Thinking Skills in teaching.
2. eUsahawan (2015-present)
eUsahawan aims to apply digital entrepreneurship values and knowledge to micro, rural and youth entrepreneurs for income generation, marketing of products and increasing sales. The programme's objective is to equip youth and microentrepreneurs with digital entrepreneurship skills. To date, more than 400,000 Malaysians have benefited from the programme. The initiative is delivered to aspiring young entrepreneurs via integration of the digital entrepreneurship curriculum at all public Technical Vocational Education Training and universities. From 2015 until the first quarter of this year, 222,281 eUsahawan Muda and 99,852 eUsahawan Mikro were trained, generating RM90.15 million and RM693.9 million in income respectively.
3. eRezeki (2016-present)
The eRezeki programme is based on the sharing/gig economy models and is designed to enable Malaysians — in particular, individuals from B40 and M40 households — to onboard suitable digital platforms to perform tasks or work, and generate additional income. The programme has catalysed Global Online Workforce (GLOW), that is designed to train, onboard and empower local Malaysia talent as global digital freelancers, leveraging mostly their knowledge, skills and abilities. GLOW participants will be trained to source jobs from global markets via online freelance marketplace platforms, and to compete with other global digital freelancers. To date, over 300,000 people have been impacted via training and on-boarding to gig jobs, generating cumulative earnings of more than RM1.3 billion.
4. MDEC e-commerce initiatives (1996-present)
Seven flagship applications were identified to spearhead the development of the MSC when it was announced in 1996, one of which was "Borderless Marketing". The "Borderless Marketing" flagship application was conceptualised with the aim of overcoming traditional physical boundaries for businesses to serve their customers better across time zones and distance by leveraging the advent of ICT. MDEC was tasked with developing and driving the implementation of the National e-commerce Strategic Roadmap (NESR 1.0) in 2016 to accelerate Malaysia's e-commerce growth from the nascent stage of development. Then, NESR 2.0 was developed for e-commerce to be an engine for catalytic growth for businesses in Malaysia from 2021 to 2025. The aspiration under NESR 2.0 is to onboard 875,000 micro, small and medium enterprises onto e-commerce and boost 84,000 companies to adopt e-commerce in their export.
5. National Big Data Analytics (BDA) Framework (2015-present)
In late 2013, BDA was identified as a critical enabler to drive business innovation that leads to productivity gain and IT industry growth. The proposal was presented during the 2013 MSC Malaysia Implementation Council Meeting and endorsed the decision to develop the National BDA framework, which included strategic intent, priorities and imperatives in driving BDA adoption in all sectors. MDEC was then appointed as the lead agency to drive the BDA initiative, which aims to position Malaysia as the leading BDA solutions hub.
6. MDEC GAIN (Gateway, Amplify, Invest, Nurture) Programme. VC (Venture Capitalist) / Investor Matching Programme (2020-present)
A total of 104 regional and global VCs onboarded this programme and raised US$112.4 million from 2020 up to June this year. During F2 Fundraised 2020-2021, US$90.4 million with 174 companies were connected. This is the second year MDEC is running the initiative and this year will see MDEC partnering with 14 (ECF & P2P) operators to help entrepreneurs overcome economic challenges brought on by the Covid-19 onslaught.
7. MDEC FIDE (FinTech and Islamic Digital Economy) Programme (2020-present)
Developed in collaboration with regulators Bank Negara Malaysia and the Securities Commission, the programme aims to provide capacity-building support for fintech companies to develop meaningful innovative products and services. It consists of three verticals: Legal and Compliance, Business Model, and Technology.
8. MDEC Digital Creative Content Programme — Level Up KL (2019-present)
Level Up KL has come to be regarded as Southeast Asia's most influential gaming event for game developers. With the objective of bringing together both local and international players to the regional game development scene in Southeast Asia, Level Up KL provides a platform for game developers and gamers to interact, learn and share knowledge. The project has created over RM30 million in export opportunities, attracting 100 game studios, as well as the opening of two international studios in the country — Larian Studios and Playstation Malaysia.
9. MDEC Digital Investments (1996-present)
The MSC was initially set up as a designated economic zone to attract investment from foreign and local ICT and multimedia companies as well as institutions of higher learning, with the first corridor of 4 cybercities: Cyberjaya, Technology Park Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur City Centre and UPM-MTDC in the first phase of MSC development (1996-2003). Today, there are more than 70 MSC cybercities/cybercentres and Malaysia Digital Hubs to meet the needs of digital companies. To remain competitive as an investment destination, various policy changes to the MSC Incentive were implemented. Besides that, Global Testbed Initiative to attract next-generation emerging technologies to innovate in Malaysia was announced last year, with dronetech as the pilot.
10. Digital Global Business Services (GBS) (2002-present)
In 2002, MDEC pioneered the development of the Shared Services and Outsourcing (SSO) industry in MSC. In 2004, Malaysia ranked third in the world in AT Kearney's Offshore Location Attractiveness Index (now known as Kearney's Global Services Location Index) and has been maintaining the position since. In 2013, MDEC unveiled its strategy to up the value chain by concentrating on high-value Knowledge Process Outsourcing service, and the SSO cluster was renamed GBS in 2014 to reflect the maturity of the industry, from centralisation of back-office functions to higher value, multi-function activities. Although GBS accounts for only about 20 per cent of active MSC companies, it is the largest contributor to MSC Malaysia's performance with RM19.3 billion in investments, RM23.4 billion in revenue, RM15.1 billion in exports and 111,947 jobs.