Malaysia's digital economy soars with RM66.22 billion investment

Malaysia's digital investment has reportedly soared to RM66.22 billion in the first half of this year, demonstrating robust growth and resilience of the digital economy despite global geopolitical tensions. 

Digital minister Gobind Singh Deo reportedly said that this was a significant achievement, noting that the amount has already surpassed the full-year digital investment for 2023, which was RM46.2 billion at the time. 

According to The Edge Malaysia, the minister attributed the strong upward trajectory to stronger investor confidence and the economy's forecast growth of 4-5% this year. 

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He reportedly added that the investment inflow has created 25,498 jobs in the first half of the year, surpassing the 22,258-tally recorded in 2023 and that the digital sector continues to be a powerhouse for high-skilled, high-income employment.

Meanwhile, the ministry's efforts via the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation's (MDEC) partnerships and business matching programmes have generated digital export opportunities worth over RM1.93 billion, Deo reportedly said. These involved 228 companies from 11 countries including Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Tanzania, Turkiye and the United Kingdom. 

As such, this represents an increase of over 43% from the export opportunities worth RM1.35 billion generated in first half of 2023, Deo reportedly said. 

In addition, Deo reportedly said that MDEC's DEX Connex initiatives in the Philippines and Indonesia, as well as business missions, have significantly contributed to export opportunities in the first half of 2024.

He reportedly added that data centres and cloud companies have collectively contributed to the share of digital investment value across all sectors and that infotech and global business services companies have led in digital job creation. 

The minister reportedly said that 451 tech companies have been awarded the Malaysia Digital (MD) status, of which 39% of the companies are foreign companies and 61% are local companies. 

These companies with MD status are entitled to incentives, rights and privileges from the government including competitive tax incentives and duty import and sales tax exemption on the importation of multimedia equipment, access to local and foreign knowledge workers, exemption from local ownership requirements, and access to funding facilitation, Deo reportedly said. 

In February this year, Malaysia Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Zafrul Abdul Aziz, reportedly said that almost 70% of the country's RM225 billion approved investments are in the digital economy.

In an interview, the minister reportedly explained that the country has what it takes to power artificial intelligence (AI) and bring the whole ecosystem into Malaysia. 

Zafrul also reportedly said that the country has AI factories that were visited by Nvidia Corporation and added that the tech company, alongside other companies, have expressed interest to support the advancement of AI in Malaysia.

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