The Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) has revealed that the New Industrial Master Plan 2030 (NIMP2030) is being drafted to advance the nation’s economic complexity with Malaysia’s digital economy and its development being a key focus.
Launching in August this year, NIMP2030 aims to complement the New Investment Policy (NIP) through the identification of five sectors that play a role in enhancing the complexity of future exports.
The sectors include aerospace, chemicals/ petrochemicals, digital economy, E&E (including medical devices) and pharmaceuticals.
“Following on from that, one key focus area that NIMP2030 Task Force is seriously looking at is for us to achieve higher economic complexity is by making Malaysia a digitally vibrant nation,” said Minister Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz at the unveiling of the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation’s (MATRADE) Digital Trade Platform (MDTP).
He also added that the government has pledged to help industries accelerate their tech adoption and developing business opportunities through new data sources.
The MDTP was developed in collaboration with Fusionex, a data technology provider specialising in Analytics, Big Data, Machine Learning and AI that aims to connect Malaysian business communities with global markets.
“Data is, indeed, the new oil, and in a world brimming with structured and unstructured data, MDTP has been conceptualised to help bridge the gap between technology, data and businesses, including SMEs, to facilitate the growth of trade,” Seri said.
Seri further added that MATRADE and Fusionex, through MDTP, have a target of connecting 50,000 businesses within the next 10 years.
In line with the digital economy focus of NIMP2030, during the speech, MITI also encouraged Malaysian businesses to utilise grants such as Bank Negara’s RM1-billion allocation to incentivise SMEs on process automation and operational digitalisation.
NIMP2030 also aims to create an enabling environment that attracts and supports suitable investments to foster industrial development to manufacture products with a higher complexity score. In turn, the proposed increase in complexity of exports and the economy will facilitate higher export revenue.
Malaysia’s plans to ramp up its digital economy are already in full swing as Malaysia is expected to rake in foreign direct investments worth billions of ringgit through the Malaysia Digital initiative, an outcome of the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation’s (MDEC) consistent involvement at London Tech Week 2023.
According to Bernama, MDEC’s CEO, Mahadhir Aziz, it was noted that announcement will be made in the coming week, with the cooperation of government agencies, strategic partners and European digital companies in focused areas ranging from digital finance, data technology to cyber security and cloud solutions.
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