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Future Forward Economy
Malaysia is ramping up efforts to nurture a future forward economy. As one of the most technologically developed countries among industrialising nations in the ASEAN region, Malaysia’s persistent drive to engage modern technologies proves to be a great advantage to investors in Malaysia. The country’s aspiration to be a digitally-driven, high income nation and a regional leader in digital economy is encapsulated in MyDIGITAL – Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint. Among other main initiatives are the National Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) Policy, Industry4WRD, a Digital Investment Office (DIO) endorsed by the National Council of Digital Economy and Fourth Industrial Revolution (MED4IR), and National Digital Network (JENDELA). These aim to accelerate digital transformation and advance industry transition towards the future of manufacturing by deploying technology, transforming the workforce and scaling an end-to-end supply chain. Investors should strike while the iron is hot and capitalise on these growing opportunities.
Our efforts in attracting investments and driving productivity and innovation through economic and regulatory reforms have received worldwide recognition by various international institutions.
Building upon the foundation laid down by the Industry4WRD framework, Malaysia has unveiled the National 4IR Policy as a broader overarching national policy that drives coherence in transforming the socioeconomic development of the country through ethical use of 4IR technologies.
The National 4IR Policy is aligned with MyDIGITAL Blueprint and also the National Policy on Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTIN) 2021-2030 that aims to develop Malaysia as a high-tech nation by 2030.
The National 4IR Policy is important to enhance policy coherence in enabling sustainable resource optimisation and implementation coordination towards the strategic direction outlined in Malaysia’s Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 as well as our commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals.
To accelerate the adoption of these technologies while building the local capability to innovate new solutions, the National 4IR Policy pushes for the creation of an even more conducive ecosystem especially in terms of talent, infrastructure readiness, regulatory approach and technological capability.
Source: Economic Planning Unit
Malaysia has implemented the National Policy on Industry 4.0 – Industry4WRD to develop a smarter and stronger manufacturing sector driven by people, processes and technology. As a clear strategic direction for the country, Industry4WRD marks Malaysia’s shift to fully embrace Industry 4.0, with smart manufacturing and eventually leading to the introduction of smart cities, smart grids, and smart solutions.
As companies transition to Industry 4.0 to stay competitive globally, the talent pool needs to be upskilled as well. A business’s wealth is in individuals that drive it. Hence, the Government has placed emphasis on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) to reduce the gap in supply and demand for skills as well as to develop industry-ready talents.
According to the Malaysia Education Blueprint, there will be a demand for an additional 1.3 million TVET employees. As part of its talent initiative, MIDA launched an Apprenticeship programme in collaboration with the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) and Ministry of Education (MOE).
These goals and targets support the national vision for the transformation of the manufacturing industry. They assist Malaysia’s progression in improving performance, enhancing technology capacity and skills, driving change to a highly experienced workforce, and expanding the contribution of the sector to the national economy.
MIDA is steadily making efforts to assist and familiarise local industry players in implementing Industry 4.0 into their operations. Engagements include a jointly organised MIDA-IME Industry 4.0 Showcase with the IME Group of Organisers (with the support of Dassault Systèmes and Robert Bosch) at its headquarters. The showcase demonstrated a wide range of related technologies such as simulation, additive manufacturing, system integration, digitisation, cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT), and data analytics.
Bosch, a leading global supplier of technology plans to build a manufacturing facility in Penang focusing on semiconductor components and sensor testing. They would take advantage of the latest Industry 4.0 initiatives. The modern facility has more than 100,000 square meters of land available in Penang, which will be developed in stages. It will primarily focus on the final testing of components manufactured at Bosch Automotive Electronics in Dresden, Germany.
With the long-term forecasts for growth of semiconductor component quantities, coupled with the front-end production in Bosch’s Dresden facility in Germany, capacity expansion is required for the back-end production, which is the final testing phase of semiconductors and sensors. This new site is also intended to strengthen the matured eco-system for the semiconductor industry here in Penang
– Simon Song, Managing Director, Bosch Malaysia (2020)
Elevated sector efficiency and accelerated development capacities are transforming Malaysia into a premier services provider for advanced technologies.
The Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) is an initiative that offers both physical and digital zones to help SMEs capitalise on the exponential growth expedited by the combination of the web economy and cross-border e-commerce. DFTZ expands Malaysia’s e-commerce roadmap, which aims to increase e-commerce growth and increase its contribution to GDP to RM211 billion (approximately US$48 billion) per year.
Under the National e-Commerce Strategic Roadmap, MIDA has been mandated as the lead agency to facilitate the transformation of Malaysia into a regional e-fulfilment hub.
DFTZ aims to:
Launched in 2020, Jendela is a RM21 billion national digital infrastructure plan designed to steer Malaysia towards greater digital connectivity by boosting the efficiency of the national infrastructure and optimising spectrum usage. The plan aims to provide the foundation for comprehensive and quality broadband coverage, and prepare the country to adopt the 5G technology.
It would not only increase speed and connectivity; it is an economic imperative that holistically influences the quality of life, and business, including SMEs. Under MyDIGITAL, a total of RM15 billion will be invested to roll out 5G nationwide over a period of 10 years.
The Government is encouraging the development of a reliable 5G ecosystem and stimulate the adoption of 5G use by industries and the public sector across areas such as automotive, manufacturing, education, agriculture, tourism and media.
The Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint (2021-2030) or MyDIGITAL has been introduced to charter the directions, strategies, initiatives and targets to lead the growth of the digital economy. Among the key business-related targets include an investment of RM70 billion in digitalisation, number of start-ups to increase to 5,000, a 30 per cent increase in productivity in all sectors and a 22.6 per cent contribution of the digital economy to Malaysia’s GDP.
The National Council of Digital Economy and Fourth Industrial Revolution (MED4IR) chaired by the Prime Minister endorsed the establishment of the Digital Investment Office (DIO) which is entrusted to charge towards facilitating digital investments in Malaysia. The role of DIO is consistent with MyDIGITAL and the National Investment Aspirations, guided by the essence of the Shared Prosperity Vision (SPV) 2030.
The DIO is a fully-digital collaborative platform between MIDA and the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) to coordinate and facilitate all digital investments. The objective of this endeavour is not only to create awareness on digital investments in the country but to also strengthen the coordination among all Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) in promoting and attracting new investments in this fast-evolution segment.
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Malaysia received a top score of 10 for its high smartphone and mobile broadband penetration. It is also impressive that Malaysia has improved the affordability of mobile broadband, which is relatively good compared to other adopters and also achieved a two-point jump in 4G coverage over last year. Besides the more affordable mobile broadband, several other GCI indicators relating to the user experience also show improvement, namely e-Government, customer services, Internet use, and download speeds.
— Global Connectivity Index 2019
