The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) announced nine new Digital Transformation Lab (DTL) partners that it has invited to join its commitment to “empower more Malaysian businesses to go digital”.
The move also intends to establish the country’s position as the region’s tech and digital hub. The nine new DTL partners will join the existing partners, bringing it to a total of 14 partners.
MDEC is a government agency under the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia with a mission to lead the nation’s digital economy forward.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Digital Transformation of Industries report, companies that understand digital transformation earn 26 per cent more profit than others.
Businesses in Malaysia are being urged to recognise the importance of digital transformation and the limitless benefits it can bring. Public-private partnership is an essential component in Malaysia’s digital transformation journey.
To prepare itself in welcoming the Fourth Industrial Revolution, MDEC established DTAP in 2018 to equip Malaysian companies with the necessary tools to help kickstart their digital transformation journey.
The initiative was launched with objectives such as “future-proofing” Malaysian companies by helping them enhance their competitiveness, and providing a structured approach via DTL partners while adopting emerging digital technologies.
MDEC claims that DTAP is an outcome-driven programme. In this programme, the invited DTL partners help companies identify business pain points using specific methodologies. It helps them brainstorm on new ideas, design new business models, develop new products and/or services, to finally pilot the implementation plan.
To date, the DTL partners have conducted 23 workshops. The programme said has impacted more than 300 local companies in charting their digital transformation journey.
In 2017, MDEC two initiatives that aimed to bolster the country’s digitalisation efforts.
The first was the Malaysia Digital Hub. This programme provides the necessary resources for start-ups to scale globally. These include high-speed internet connectivity, funding opportunities, mentors and other aspects of a conducive business environment such as corporate tax exemptions.
The first three digital hubs that have been approved by the government are APW, The Co. and Common Ground. They are all located in the Klang Valley.
The second initiative was the Malaysia Tech Entrepreneur Programme (MTEP), which aims to attract global talents to expand or build start-ups in Malaysia.
Malaysia is able to connect businesses to a regional market of more than 625 million people. With the introduction of Malaysia Digital Hub and MTEP, the local and global tech start-up communities can now leverage these benefits that our country has to offer.
This will help to strengthen Malaysia’s position as a global hub for start-ups and entrepreneurs.
The Malaysian tech ecosystem is considered one of the most developed in Southeast Asia. With regulation policies and facilities that support start-ups, and a private sector that been stepping up its game over the past two years.
In 2017, the government pushed its innovation to drive up one notch with the launch of the Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ).
Its goal is to become an e-commerce hub, in which SMEs and start-ups can build regional fulfilment centres. The DFTZ’s main strategic partners will be MDEC and two industry partners.