The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Malaysia’s lead agency in the digital economy, and Malaysia Digital Association (MDA) recently signed an agreement to foster collaborations through corporate innovation, mentorship and accelerator programmes to raise awareness on initiatives set to benefit the digital economy ecosystem.
As part of the agreement, both MDEC and MDA are set to organise a speaking engagement series called Digital Wednesday, on a quarterly basis. The sessions will feature prominent industry speakers and experts as well as MDEC’s leadership team who will share insights and the latest on talent development, digital investments and plans to further contribute to growing Malaysia’s digital economy ecosystem.
The collaboration will kick off this month with MDEC’s involvement in MDA’s signature industry learning platform, MDA School, which provides joint certification programmes, among others. This initiative will be the first of many programmes held by both organisations for the industry, which include Digital Wednesday – MDA’s quarterly industry networking, sharing and learning event. And, for the first time, MDEC will be involved in MDA’s d Awards 2022, an annual event that recognises and honours the talents, agencies, brands, publishers and digital service providers that embrace and use digital technologies.
The Senior Vice President, Investment and Brand and Chief Marketing Officer, MDEC stated that partnership with MDA aims to further push ahead with initiatives to enhance and catalyse Malaysia’s digital economy ecosystem through brand campaigns, #SayaDigital and Malaysia, Heart of Digital ASEAN.
MDEC is optimistic that the partnership will create more opportunities for not just the members but also non-members, thereby advancing an inclusive digital economy in line with the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint (MyDIGITAL) and Shared Prosperity Vision 2030, he added.
The MDA President and Chief Operating Officer of the digital arm of a Malaysian media and entertainment group based in Petaling Jay stated that the partnership is significant; it allows MDA and MDEC to work together in driving the industry forward for those involved in any digital business out there. This also establishes MDA as a critical player together with MDEC in empowering the industry and continuing to progress the nation to the next level.
The digital economy’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) will easily reach 20% by year-end from 19.1% in the current COVID-19 pandemic environment, according to Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC).
The Business Digital Adoption Director at MDEC noted that its contribution to the GDP had been already quite significant even before the pandemic at over 18% and now it had moved up to 19.1%.
In a webinar organised by Cyberview Sdn Bhd in February 2021 titled “Surviving a Pandemic: What It Means to Digitally Transform Your Business” he noted that from a digital economy standpoint, the region has gained quite a bit in terms of how the acceleration of work has been done in the country.
From an economic perspective, the acceleration has been tremendous in some areas such as e-commerce and logistics. Many of these areas have a high demand at present due to the digital demand, he added.
From the supply and demand perspective, it was noted that Malaysian start-ups and technology companies had benefitted from a supply standpoint due to the acceleration in digital demand. There are a lot of opportunities for them to grow and innovate as competition became much greater and opportunities increased.
“Therefore, today we can see a lot of start-ups coming forward with different types of business models and being more innovative because they see (potential) growth and this is the right time for them to grow,” he said.
