Major e-Commerce Boost
As I mentioned earlier, with a view to becoming a high-income knowledge-based society, MDEC has spearheaded high-impact Government initiatives as well. One such move is the establishment of the country’ s Digital Free Trade Zone( DFTZ).
Digital Free Trade Zone DFTZ is an initiative by the Malaysian Government, implemented through MDEC that aims to capitalise on the confluence and exponential growth of cross-border e-Commerce activities that are happening within digital economy. First announced in March 2017, DFTZ facilitated seamless cross-border trading and e-Commerce, which enabled Malaysian SMEs to export their goods internationally.
On November 3, 2017 Malaysia’ s Prime Minister and Jack Ma opened the first ever eWTP( electronic world trade platform) hub outside of China at a Kuala Lumpur ceremony, which also flagged off 1,900 export-ready small and medium enterprises( SMEs).
On the public-sector perspective, the Malaysian Government has introduced a new category of certified locations called the Malaysia Digital Hubs for the start-up community in the digital economy. This is achieved through multiple public-private collaborations to offer unique value propositions such as ubiquitous hyper-speed broadband, hot-desking, mentoring and coaching services.
Looking Ahead
Another thing we must do from the fundamentals – human capital, investments – concerns the ecosystem. One of the most critical ecosystems that we are putting our focus on is- as I put it last year- the“ dance floor”. The BDA“ dance floor” is one of the most important and is really anchored around talent development; data scientists, data modellers, and analysts. At the end of the day, though, whatever transformation needs to happen needs to be driven by the private sector. We as Government can only create the“ dance floor” but the actual dancing is still with the private sector.
In an ever-changing innovative world, Malaysia needs to remain steadfast on the Digital Malaysia road and to ensure we become the lead in key areas of enabling fundamentals. We are extremely inspired that we are moving in that direction with the Malaysian Government focused on accelerating growth and enhancing the wellbeing of the rakyat.
Looking ahead, Malaysia’ s Digital Economy is envisioning 20 % of GDP by 2020. With a sustained push by all stakeholders, the Digital Economy contribution has good potential to reach the targeted value of RM324.9 billion by 2020, as set out in the 11 th Malaysia Plan.
An important part of MDEC’ s championing of the digital economy embraces digital inclusivity across all communities. We are passionate about inspiring everyone to use digital within our Digital Malaysia journey so that the digital economy’ s success can be shared by all.
The eRezeki and eUsahawan initiatives were launched in 2016 to target key communities such as youth, SMEs, digital entrepreneurs and the B40. eRezeki is a programme for Malaysians to earn supplementary income online, while eUsahawan is a digital entrepreneurship programme helping the general public with basic business fundamentals to enhance their online sales.
So to amplify the nationwide impact of the eRezeki and eUsahawan initiatives, we developed our # YouCanDuit multichannel campaign using carnivals, roadshows, with other musical and entertainment components. Close to 200,000 people attended the on-ground events, while our multiple channel campaign included a successful partnership with not just Astro, but with other stations as well such as TV 3 and RTM, and succeeded in creating a phenomenon in building the awareness of # YouCanDuit programmes. We have consistently reached out to 10 million viewers in the past two years.
2018 will continue to see the growth of digital economy, as indicated in the budget announced in 2017. The vision is to turn Malaysia into a regional hub for digital economy. The Government, together with MDEC, are gearing up towards turning that vision into reality as we steadfastly activate our plan.
I am delighted to reaffirm the message that these times are among the best of times for us Malaysians, to ensure we are part of the Digital Malaysia journey and so share the success of the dawning Digital Economy!
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