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Malaysia 2016 Budget to Boost Nationwide Technology & Innovation

Malaysia 2016 Budget to Boost Nationwide Technology & Innovation

Finance Minister Najib Razak (and also Prime Minister) announced that much of the 2016 budget focuses on innovation to help entrepreneurship, SMEs and startups nationwide, with a view to reaching his Vision 2020 goals.

The Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) was allocated additional RM35 million to establish itself “as a Leading Regional Entrepreneurship and Innovation Hub,” said Prime Minister Najib

MaGIC aims to make Malaysia the start up hub of Asia. Their mission is “to catalyze the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Malaysia, bringing together the abundant resources from partners and communities alike, and to develop entrepreneurs of enduring, high growth startups that will make a positive impact at a regional or global scale.

This follows a host of allocations MaGIC has got in the last two national budgets. When Najib announced the Budget 2014, he had allocated RM50 million for the establishment of MaGIC. Later this was increased to RM70 million.

Under Budget 2015, he also announced a slew of allocations to boost entrepreneurship, with many of the programmes falling under MaGIC.

Other innovation driven allocations included RM1.5 billion to be used for a Science, Technology and Innovation Camp, in a bid to make the country a competitive technology hub for the region. RM200 million to be allocated to establish the SME Technology Transformation Fund under SME Bank to provide soft loans at interest rates of 4%.

RM100 million was awarded to the Malaysian Innovation Agency or Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM) and RM30 million for several youth entrepreneurship programmes such as Global Entrepreneurship Community, 1MET, National Innovation Competition and a Pilot Coding Project in schools.

RM1.5 billion was  allocated to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti) in an effort to turn Malaysia into a “competitive technology hub for the region.”

Mosti itself has a number of agencies under its wing, with Malaysian Debt Ventures Bhd (MDV), Malaysian Venture Capital Management Bhd (Mavcap), Technology Park Malaysia (TPM), the research-based Mimos Bhd, and CyberSecurity Malaysia being the most notable technology- and digital-focused agencies.

At the 26th MSC Malaysia Implementation Council Meeting (ICM), Prime Minister Najib said  “Our goal of becoming a digital economy is not just to be technologically advanced. Fundamentally, it is about helping and encouraging Malaysians of all walks of life, including the bottom 40% (B40) of the income pyramid, to be innovative and be willing to apply their minds to become producers and not just consumers of technology. This will help propel digital economy growth, which now contributes 16.3% to the national GDP.”

Other focus of the meeting was to drive public sector excellence with Digital Government Transformation. This includes online service delivery, telecommunications infrastructure, and human capital development.

“Malaysia’s success will hinge on how well our businesses, citizens and civil service respond to these opportunities and creatively harness the new waves of growth that a digital economy offers said Prime Minister Najib

MDeC chief executive officer Yasmin Mahmood  said “We believe the decisions taken at the 26th MSC Malaysia ICM will further drive Malaysia’s long-term vision and strategy to not only raise the bar in the local ICT industry, but also enable the national transformation agenda.

She also said that the next six years will be crucial, as MDeC takes Digital Malaysia to the next level with a stronger focus on delivering visible impact by deepening niche economic segments and enhancing community benefits from digital technology. 

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

PARTNER

CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

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Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

PARTNER

HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

PARTNER

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

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