KUALA LUMPUR: The government today rolled out Malaysia Digital (MD), a new national digital initiative aimed at further enhancing the nation's digital capabilities and boosting the existing digital economy.
The new initiative will succeed MSC Malaysia (MSC) which has driven the country's transformation into a knowledge-based economy since its inception in 1996.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said MD will further speed up the nation's digital economy and subsequently benefit the people.
"The nation needs to produce more talent and competitive digital workforce, a well-equipped infrastructure to ensure that our nation's capabilities and capacities remain world class.
"Therefore, the MSC initiative needs to be reinvented to further drive the country's digital economy and achieve such an aspiration.
"Therefore, the government has planned MD based on three main principles, namely Flexibility, Agility and Relevance," said Ismail Sabri.
The Prime Minister said this in his speech at the launch of MD, which coincided with the Silver Jubilee Celebration of the Malaysia Digital Economic Corporation (MDEC).
Present were Communications and Multimedia Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Economic Affairs) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed and Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi.
Also in attendance was MDEC chief executive officer Mahadhir Aziz.
Under MD, Ismail Sabri said the government, through MDEC, will introduce two Malaysia Digital Catalytic Programmes (Pemangkin) that will operate holistically to the nation's digital economy ecosystem through three strategic priorities.
Apart from driving digital adoption among young entrepreneurs, companies and the people, he explained that the other two strategic priorities are to support local technology companies and transform them into "Malaysian champions" as well as successful international players; besides attracting high-value digital investments.
The two initial projects under Pemangkin, he said, are De Rantau and Digital Trade.
"De Rantau will transform Malaysia into preferred Digital Nomad Hub by accelerating digital adoption and promote professional mobility as well as drive tourism across the country.
"Digital Trade, meanwhile, will seek greater harmonisation of standards and regulatory approaches as well as to facilitate trade within and across borders in line with the National E-commerce Strategic Roadmap (NESR)," he said.
The Cabinet, he said, has agreed for the establishment of the Malaysia Digital Coordination Committee (MD-CC) that will ensure effective implementation of MD.
"I have proposed the MDEC to create a dedicated platform that will provide opportunities to continuously participation from industry players and provide the inputs throughout implementing MD.
"This is because the government recognises the important role played by the industry in implementing such a high-impact initiative," he said.
At the event, Ismail Sabri also announced the first batch of six companies to be awarded the MD status by the government.
The companies are Bytedance System Sdn. Bhd, Bridge Data Centres Malaysia (III) Sdn. Bhd, GDS IDC Services (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd, Abbott Laboratories (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd, Aceteam Connect Sdn. Bhd and Peninsula Apex Technologies Sdn. Bhd.