PETALING JAYA: The information and communication technology (ICT) and e-commerce industries generated RM427.7 billion in 2023, contributing 23.5% to Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP), compared to 22.9% or RM411.6 billion in 2022, said Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said.

He said ICT and e-commerce grew by 3.9% in 2023, compared to 14.3% in the previous year.

“The ICT and e-commerce industries comprise the gross value added of the ICT industry (GVAICT), which contributed 13.8%, and 9.6% from e-commerce in non-ICT industries,” Mohd Uzir said. The GVAICT of RM252 billion recorded a growth of 3.8%, compared to 11.4% in the previous year, supported by ICT services contributing 41.6%.

“This was followed by ICT manufacturing, ICT trade, and content and media, which contributed 38.2%, 14.2%, and 6%, respectively. The GVA of e-commerce totalled RM248.2 billion, with a slower growth of 3.7% compared to 19.2% in the previous year. E-commerce’s contribution to GDP stood at 13.6%, with the manufacturing sector remaining the primary contributor at 51.8%, followed by the services sector at 45.2%. The remaining contributions came from the mining & quarrying, agriculture, and construction sectors,” he said.

ICT product exports contributed 34.5% to Malaysia’s exports, amounting to RM430.7 billion in 2023, dominated by ICT goods, which contributed 90.9%.

“Meanwhile, imports of ICT products accounted for 23.4% of the country’s imports, valued at RM270.7 billion, with ICT goods contributing 84.3%. Overall, the net export of ICT products recorded a surplus of RM160.0 billion in 2023,” Mohd Uzir said.

In terms of the labour force, employment in the ICT industry increased by 1.6% to 1.24 million people in 2023, accounting for 7.8% of total employment in Malaysia. This employment was dominated by ICT manufacturing, at 35.6%, followed by ICT services and ICT trade, contributing 29.2% and 22.4%, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) has released the Information and Communication Technology Satellite Account 2023 statistics.

The satellite account is a statistical framework for measuring the performance of the ICT industry, including e-commerce and its contribution to GDP, the export and import of ICT products, and employment in the ICT industry.

DoSM has also launched OpenDOSM NextGen, a medium that provides data catalogues and visualisation tools to facilitate user analysis of various data.

The government has declared Oct 20 as National Statistics Day (MyStats Day). The theme for MyStats Day is ‘Statistics: The Pulse of Life’. DOSM is celebrating its 75th Diamond Jubilee anniversary in 2024.