THE digital economy is expected to contribute 22.6% of Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) and create over 500,000 jobs by 2025, Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti) Minister Dr Adham Baba said.

He said Malaysia has placed priorities on expanding the adoption of digital consumer tools (e-commerce and digital payments), attracting, training, and retaining digital talent, fostering digital entrepreneurial ventures,  providing fast mobile broadband internet access, as well as coordinating innovation between universities, businesses and digital authorities.

“This level of digital evolution will help cushion against the pandemic’s economic impact. For example, more digitally-evolved economies tend to derive a larger share of their GDP from high-tech sectors, where the  workforce can shift to remote working more readily.”

“In addition, digital technology adopters tend to be better at delivering services online due to their experience with online infrastructure with affordable Internet services. Some leverage digital evolution for contact tracing, exposure identification, data collection, and public health messaging that significantly minimised economic disruptions,” he said in his keynote address at Huawei Asia Pacific Digital Innovation Conference 2022 in Singapore today. – Bernama, May 19, 2022.