H3C Opinion: Malaysia Is On Track For Building A Digital Nation

By Rockies Ma, General Manager of H3C Malaysia

In its efforts to adapt to the changing global economy and become a digital-ready nation, Malaysia’s digital economy is witnessing rapid growth, especially after the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the start of the year, Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul, Minister of Finance Malaysia, concluded in his opening speech that 2022 would be a pivotal recovery year for Malaysia. It is also an opportunity for the nation to reform concerning the hardships in the last two years. The digitalisation road ahead will require a whole-of-nation approach involving the government, regulators, the private sector, and digital solution providers.

According to Digital Talent Survey 2021^[1], a survey carried out by Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), 48 percent of companies in Malaysia adopted digital tech platforms for day-to-day operations in 2021, compared to 19 percent in 2020. Over the past year, many companies have accelerated digital upskilling from digital productivity tools to technical skills such as data analytics, cybersecurity, cloud computing, digital marketing, and software development. Hence, digital solution providers are playing an increasingly important role.

According to a report from Forbes^[2], enterprises are heavily investing in technologies to advance their digital transformation journey to drive productivity and efficiency further. However, despite spending millions, many enterprises have been unsuccessful because they lacked the expertise to lead their digitalisation initiatives. Another reason could be due to the complexity and enormous undertaking required to reshape the overall corporate landscape.

To address these pitfalls, digital solution providers have entered the scene and act as consultants for these corporations as they are experts in analyzing the digital world. These tech-savvy groups will identify and recommend the suitable solution to assist these corporations in undergoing digitalisation. A qualified digital solution provider puts in their best practices to guide their end-users on taking the necessary steps. As the saying goes, do more with less. The role of digital solution providers has become more significant in the digitalisation journey of corporations while building a digital nation.

In conjunction with the anniversary of the MyDIGITAL initiative, which was launched a year ago, MyDIGITAL Corporation had collaborated with the World Bank to organise a virtual dialogue titled “Growing the Digital Economy with an Enabling Regulatory Environment”. As a result of consistent efforts from the Malaysian government, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy), said that Malaysia is on course to achieve a digital economy contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) of at least 25.5 percent by 2025.

In addition, MyDigital Corporation recently unveiled the MyDigital Progress Report 2021, which charts the progress and achievements made by the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint (MDEB) for the last 10 months. The report read that during the past year, the digital market in Malaysia grew by 47% to US$21 billion (RM87.8 billion) from US$14 billion (RM58.5 billion) previously, driven by the growth in e-commerce. Hence, it is encouraging to see that Malaysia continues to be a destination for high-value digital investments.