The Malaysia Tech Month 2020 (MTM 2020) officially launched on 10 November 2020. The month-long campaign, organised by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) aims to showcase the country’s digital and technology ecosystem and kicked off with a two-day conference.
MDEC’s chief marketing officer stated that the agency wants the local digital and tech industry to share the challenges, their success and their innovations that they have faced and developed over the last couple of years, especially over the last six months, and to inspire the next generation of digital and tech entrepreneurs to learn from their experiences.
Fostering Malaysia’s digital ecosystem
Billed as the capstone campaign for MDEC, MTM 2020 aims to emphasise and fortify Malaysia’s role in expanding the digital economy and its first-mover position in ASEAN while drawing attention to the country’s readiness in leveraging opportunities that the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) will spur and inspire.
An expansion of Malaysia Tech Week, MTM 2020 will provide a platform for a wide-ranging array of events, highlighting multiple collaborations with industry partners that are taking place throughout November.
The campaign serves as an overarching umbrella platform for all Malaysian digital and tech industry events in November. The launch day conference is just the start – MTM 2020’s partner events include Wild Digital Southeast Asia 2020: Virtual Edition; MyDroneTech Fest KL; MyDroneTech Fest Roundtable; State of the Global Islamic Economy 2020/21 Launch; LEVEL UP KL 2020: SEA Game Awards 2020; and LEVEL UP KL 2020: Play Day.
MTM 2020 was conceived when MDEC noticed several standalone events occurring in November. The agency looked at the content that was out there, and instead of having various smaller events or standalone events, we felt that we had an opportunity to curate all these great events that are happening.
It allows people to focus fully on what Malaysia’s digital tech ecosystem has to offer. Interest from industry has been seen as well as regional interest coming in, to look at the sheer diversity of solutions and passion that is coming out from Malaysia’s digital tech ecosystem.
MTM 2020 comes at an extremely opportune time as Malaysia is placing a growing emphasis on the digital economy. According to the Department of Statistics, the country’s digital economy is expected to contribute 20% of the economy by 2020.
It’s already on its way to achieving that easily, as Malaysia’s digital economy contributed 19.1% to the national economy in 2019, up from 18.7% in 2018. This year, the e-commerce sector will lead the charge as it is expected to exceed RM110 billion in revenue in that same period. This roughly equals to 40% of the nation’s digital economy.
Meanwhile, MDEC Chairman stated that the event will support Malaysia’s Shared Prosperity ambition as the digital economy continues to show tremendous potential for equitable opportunities. Beyond strengthening the confidence of the country as a compelling digital and tech investment hub for Southeast Asia, MTM 2020 enables Malaysia to further its collective goals in building a 4IR-ready workforce and widen its efforts to drive forward border-spanning innovations.
Moreover, the event is bringing together inspiring leaders and innovators to showcase Malaysia’s best, MDEC will continue to stimulate the growth of 4IR technologies, like artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT).
MDEC’s CEO also stated that the agency is sparing no efforts to ensure digital technologies remain central to Malaysia’s socio-economic growth in this new norm. To achieve this, it must be ensured that the initiatives – both current and upcoming – are relevant to the needs of start-ups and SMEs. They must start to think regional and then go global. MTM 2020 serves as a strategic extension of the Malaysian government’s continued push to develop and sustain a vibrant digital economy.
