CYBERJAYA: Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) welcomes the emphasis on digital and technology for the nation's development in the Twelfth Malaysia Plan (12MP) announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob yesterday.
The 12MP also includes the positioning of Malaysia as the Asean digital centre, given the country's strong capability in cybersecurity solutions and digital content products.
"The focus on digitalising MSMEs and to position Malaysia as the ASEAN digital centre through the 12MP reaffirms the impact of MDEC's twin initiatives of #SayaDigital and Malaysia Heart of Digital Asean," said MDEC's chief executive officer, Mahadhir Aziz in a statement released by MDEC.
The five-year plan (2021–2025), themed "A Prosperous, Inclusive, Sustainable Malaysia" - aims to steer Malaysia out of the Covid-19 pandemic effect and put the economy back on track. Digitalising micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to broaden market access and facilitating strategic and quality digital investment will be the focus and one of the main efforts put forth in order to achieve this.
MDEC will intensify efforts to encourage MSMEs to adopt digital technologies in production, processes, and business services, mainly in the back-end of business operations.
"We will continue to push forward initiatives to establish a progressive and inclusive digital economy in line with our vision as well as the goals of the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint (MyDigital)," added Mahadhir.
Other initiatives by MDEC including eRezeki, eUsahawan and Global Online Workforce (GLOW) have collectively brought more than RM2.153 billion in income generated.
More recently, MDEC has kicked off the 2021 edition of the 100 Go Digital Coaching programme, which aims to enable businesses in key sectors to move towards digitalising their businesses to remain competitive, sustainable, and profitable amidst the pandemic.
This year, MDEC kickstarted the Go-eCommerce Onboarding and Shop Malaysia Online campaigns which will benefit 300,000 local businesses by helping them onboard onto eCommerce and ePayment platforms. Since 2017, MDEC has helped 489,000 SMEs adopt ecommerce, with companies using eCommerce for export growing from 1,800 to 27,000.
Another strategy launched by MDEC in its effort to attract investments and advance Malaysia's digital economy is the Digital Investments Future5 (DIF5) strategy, a five-year plan focusing on five key thrusts where by year 2025, the corporation aims to have landed catalytic and high-quality digital investments to unlock new drivers of growth, which will be supported and facilitated by the Digital Investment Office (DIO).
MDEC's initiatives are also aimed towards reskilling and upskilling new and existing workforce for the digital economy. Its Digital Skills Training Directory, for instance, serves as a one-stop guide to digital reskilling and upskilling via a catalogue of 250 courses and online training providers that have been specifically reviewed and endorsed by MDEC's Talent Expert Network (TEN).
MDEC has also been key to the development of the Malaysian cybersecurity and digital creative content industry. Matrix is a collaboration programme between the government and industries to
provide solutions with the aim to manage SME cybersecurity challenges and act as a catalyst for the success of SMEs in the era of digital economy.
MDEC was also the leading organisation under the development of the Digital Content Ecosystem (DICE) Policy aimed to fortify the local digital content industry and position Malaysia as a leader in digital content creation and production from 2019.