MyDigital to create 500k jobs, contribute 22.6pct to GDP by 2025 - PM

 

The MyDigital initiative is expected to create 500,000 jobs in the digital economy and contribute 22.6 percent to the country's gross domestic product (GDP), said Muhyiddin Yassin.

The Prime Minister (above) said the initiative would complement national development policies such as the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) and Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 (SPV 2030).

“MyDigital sets out a combination of initiatives and targets across the three phases of implementation until 2030.

"By 2025, the digital economy is expected to contribute 22.6 percent to the country's gross domestic product," he said when launching the MyDigital and Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint virtually today.

Muhyiddin said the government would also encourage 875,000 micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to accept the use of e-commerce.

He also said the initiatives under MyDigital could catalyse 5,000 startup companies in the next five years, adding that this will attract RM70 billion of new investments in the digital sector from within and out of the country.

The government is targeting a 30 percent increase in the economic sector's productivity by 2030.

For the public sector, all agencies will provide cashless transactions as the main choice by 2022.

To spur innovation and create an effective digital ecosystem, he said four important types of digital infrastructure under MyDigital need to be built first.

“This construction effort will be done through the government and private partnership approach, where the private sector would contribute capital funding and skills.

"First, a total of RM21 billion will be invested over five years through the National Digital Network (Jendela) project to strengthen existing connectivity," he said.

Muhyiddin said the fixed-line fibre optic network would cover almost 100 percent of populated areas in stages - from 7.5 million premises by end-2022 to 9 million premises by end-2025.

Based on this wider fibre optic network, he said the country will be better prepared to switch to the fifth generation cellular networking technology (5G) in the near future.

Secondly, he said RM1.65 billion will be invested by several telecommunications companies to strengthen connectivity to the international submarine cable network until 2023.

Muhyiddin said this will open up space for faster and more stable international data transfer, thus lowering internet costs to consumers in Malaysia.

Third, he said RM15 billion will be invested over the next 10 years for the implementation of 5G nationwide and this will create about 105,000 jobs.

“This effort will be implemented through a special entity or a special purpose vehicle under the Malaysian government.

"This entity will then be given the appropriate spectrum to own, implement, and manage 5G infrastructure," he said, adding that all licensed telecommunications companies will have equal access to infrastructure to market 5G services to their customers.

By the year's end, 5G technology will begin to be enjoyed by the people in stages, he said. “With this, Malaysia will be one of the first countries in the region to build a 5G ecosystem using the internet and cloud services in real-time, to enable information to be shared instantly.”

Fourth, he said between RM12 billion to RM15 billion will be invested by cloud service providers (CSP) over the next five years.

The Prime Minister also announced that the government has so far given conditional permission to four CSP companies, namely Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Telekom Malaysia, to build and manage hyper-scale data centres and cloud services.

This hyper-scale data centre, as well as hybrid cloud services, which will also be provided, will increase data storage space, reduce operating costs, and improve analytical efficiency.

- Bernama