Digital Minister urges Malaysian tech firms to expand locally

PUTRAJAYA: Amidst the surge of foreign investments in Malaysia’s digital economy, the government is keen to see more local technology companies expand their operations within the country, says Gobind Singh Deo.

One significant effort in this direction is the Gateway, Amplify, Invest & Nurture (GAIN) initiative by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), the Digital Minister said.

GAIN aims to facilitate market access for Malaysian tech firms through business-to-business matching and networking with global tech ecosystem players.

“Since 2017, GAIN has accessed markets in over 26 countries, involving over 150 Malaysian tech companies and organising over 1,000 one-to-one business meetings. This has resulted in revenues of RM31.9bil and exports worth RM11.2bil,” he said during the Digerati50 Networking Cocktail event in Cyberjaya.

Gobind highlighted that the digital economy is projected to contribute 25.5% to Malaysia’s GDP by the end of next year.

The rise in digital investments to RM66.22bil in the first half of this year, surpassing the RM46.2bil recorded in 2023, shows Malaysia is on the right track.

“These investments depend on the resilience of our digital sphere. Technologies like generative AI can offer many benefits, but must be soundly implemented,” he noted.

Gobind also praised Cyberjaya’s success in nurturing a tech ecosystem under the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) project, which started 28 years ago.

Cyberview Sdn Bhd is tasked with developing a holistic tech hub ecosystem in Cyberjaya. Its CEO, Kamarul Ariffin Abdul Samad, emphasised that Cyberjaya has nurtured over 100 startups, raised RM255mil in investments, generated RM792mil in revenue, and created 1,450 jobs.

He added that Cyberjaya is expected to remain a preferred investment destination for leading digital tech companies, particularly for setting up regional data centres in Malaysia.

“With essential digital infrastructure like data centres in place, we anticipate further growth in digitisation across industries, particularly in emerging technologies such as big data, robotics, and generative AI. Enterprises are already integrating AI into their operations, and we look forward to the transformative impact AI will have,” he said. – Bernama