THE government will ensure the digitalisation of the country’s economy will not leave anyone out of mainstream development premised on the 3A services concept of available, accessible and affordable, said Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.

Citing a Statistics Department report, Lim said the digital economy is expected to contribute more than 21% to GDP in 2022 compared with 18.5% last year.

“As announced in Budget 2020, the government has allocated RM450 million for the e-wallet programme to encourage digital payment usage among consumers and traders,” he said at the closing ceremony of the Putrajaya LIFT (Literacy in Financial Technology) Festival 2019 today.

The e-wallet programme, expected to benefit 15 million people, offers a one-off RM30 credit for those aged 21 years and above with an income of less than RM100,000 a year that can be redeemed in January and February.

To spur the country’s digital economy, Lim said the government has invested RM21.6 billion from this year until 2023 to realise the National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan, which will expand access to high-speed broadband internet at reasonable costs.

The government, he said, encourages small and medium enterprises to digitalise their business processes with an initiative of RM3.7 billion within five years.

Lim said the government also has a guarantee scheme worth RM6 billion to encourage automation, digitalisation and use of Industry 4.0 technologies, such as artificial intelligence, big data analytics and robotics, among companies.

“The digital economy does not depend only on infrastructure and programmes. A competitive market is also important,” he said.

Lim said a policy to address monopoly power has successfully increased the number of 100mbps broadband users to 1.2 million people at the end of 2018, compared with 155,000 people before the implementation of the policy at end-2017.

Lim said at the same time, people need to be aware of cyber crimes, while enjoying the digitalisation of the country’s economy and modern facilities.

Citing a CyberSecurity Malaysia report, Lim said 7,092 digital fraud cases were reported in the first 11 months of this year, more than the 5,123 reported in 2018.

“While supporting the digitalisation of the economy, the government always ensures digital and finance services suppliers pay attention to security measures on their platforms.” – Bernama, December 30, 2019.