THE government is looking into ways to reform the start-up ecosystem in terms of venture capital and investments towards the advancement of these companies, Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said.

He said the government will be focusing on funding for the start-up ecosystem and how it could be created at the seed and angel investor stages.

“My view is to see how more investment (into start-ups) will be made at the seed and angel investor stages.

“These are the things we want to see, how we can create more start-ups at the seed and angel investor levels,” he said during the Ilham Mavcap talk series organised by Malaysia Venture Capital Management Bhd in Kuala Lumpur today.

Rafizi said Malaysia now offers more than a gateway for the start-up ecosystem into the region as opposed to its neighbouring countries.

“We have the right plan, (and) with all the agencies and ecosystem working together, we can catch up very quickly compared with our peers.  

“We want to be a hub of choice for digital investors, at par with Singapore and Indonesia,” he said.

Meanwhile, Rafizi said the government is also working on ways to integrate backend systems tasked with helping the advancement of start-ups in the digital and technology ecosystem at different levels and stages.

“I will be sitting down with the Communications and Digital Ministry, as well as the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry responsible for the digital ecosystem on June 21 to get everyone on the same page and decide collectively how we are going to do this.

“We will persuade these 20 agencies to move towards a single window approach similar to what we have done with the visa application system,” he said.

Rafizi said the idea to integrate the backend system for digital and technology will be presented to the Digital Economy Council chaired by the prime minister by the end of next month.

“We will have more clarity on how we will be doing this, on what single window approach, by sometime in August because after the Digital Economy Council meeting at the end of July, we hope to get clearance for us to make a big announcement that involves some big investments,” he added. – Bernama, June 13, 2023.