PUTRAJAYA: In the excitement brought about by the surge of foreign investments in Malaysia’s digital economy, the government wants to see more homegrown technology companies “jump on the bandwagon” and expand their businesses in the country, Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo said.
He said one of the many efforts undertaken by the government to make that aspiration a reality was the Gateway, Amplify, Invest & Nurture (GAIN) initiative by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC).
GAIN aims to drive market access programmes for Malaysian tech companies via business-to-business matching and networking activities with global tech ecosystem players.
“Since 2017, GAIN has accessed the markets of over 26 nations. It has seen the involvement of over 150 Malaysian tech companies and organised over 1,000 one-to-one business meetings.
“Thanks to the direct facilitation under GAIN, we have seen revenues of RM31.9 billion from 2017 till to date, and exports worth RM11.2 billion,” he said in his speech at the DIGERATI50 Networking Cocktail event in Cyberjaya here today.
Gobind said the digital economy was expected to play a crucial part in Malaysia’s overall economy, as it was projected to contribute 25.5 per cent to the country’s gross domestic product by the end of next year.
He said Malaysia was on the right path in achieving that target, as indicated by the rise in digital investment to RM66.22 billion in the first half of this year, surpassing the RM46.2 billion recorded in 2023.
“These investments hinge on the resilience of our digital sphere. While generative artificial intelligence (AI), for example, can bring a whole lot of benefits to our economy and society, we must also ensure such technology is soundly implemented,” he noted.
On another note, Gobind said Cyberjaya, over the years, had been successful in putting in place a tech ecosystem where companies involved could flourish under the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) project.
“The advancement in technology and innovation that we experience today started 28 years ago. The MSC project launched in 1996 was the starting point of our country’s journey in technology and Cyberjaya was the nucleus of the MSC,” he said.
Cyberview Sdn Bhd is mandated to drive the growth of a holistic global tech hub ecosystem in Cyberjaya.
Picking up on Gobind’s acknowledgement of Cyberjaya’s success, Cyberview chief executive officer Kamarul Ariffin Abdul Samad said the city had nurtured over 100 startups, raised RM255 million in total investment, generated RM792 million in cumulative revenue and created 1,450 jobs.
He said Cyberjaya would continue to be the preferred investment destination of the “big boys” in the digital tech landscape, especially with the increasing demands from those companies to set up data centres for the region, here in Malaysia.
“With the key digital infrastructure as backbone to the digital economy -- the data centres -- firmly in place, we foresee further development in digitisation across industries, especially in the areas of emerging technologies like big data, robotics and generative AI.
“Enterprises and businesses, for example, are already integrating AI into their operations and workflows. We are excited to see how AI will soon change industries, services and the society at large,” he added.
