Malaysia pushes up Digital Economy 2020 target

Malaysia is targeting for the Digital Economy to drive 20% of its GDP by 2020, increasing its initial target of 17%.

The country is looking to use more digital technologies to drive economic growth and meet the initial target early in 2014.

The growth to 20% will be driven by both the public and private sectors, said Treasury Secretary-General, Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah.

“Digital economy will penetrate all sectors and become an important element," he added.

This will mean more online government services, he said. Malaysia is currently overhauling its digital government services to improve access for citizens.

Services will be clustered around citizens’ life events, rather than based on internal government structures.

Big data analytics is another area of priority for the Malaysian government. It is building a platform to understand citizens’ requirements and better predict their needs.

It will use citizen data and website analytics to track which are the services that citizens most use, and the patterns of how they interact with these services.

The Digital Economy vision is led by the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), which provides funding and support to companies and incubators with digital products and services.

"Many young entrepreneurs have emerged as a result of opportunities the new wave of the digital economy offered," said Mohd Irwan.

Meanwhile, MDeC has started planning new targets for the Digital Economy beyond 2020, its CEO Datuk Yasmin Mahmood has announced.

Image from Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah’s Facebook page.