MDEC accelerates digital growth with #SayaDigital movement

The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) has launched the #SayaDigital movement to empower and embolden Malaysians so they can quickly embrace digital skills and technologies. Done in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia, this movement aims to accelerate a digital society and spur the country to make the digital leap into the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to achieve shared prosperity for all.

#SayaDigital will feature several MDEC-led capacity-building programmes in the month of August. It will aid in providing businesses with various means to go digital and enabling Malaysians to be digitally skilled with speed and at scale. The movement hopes to accomplish four primary goals, namely “digital makes life convenient”, “digital boosts income”, “digital empowers careers”, and “digital accelerates business expansion”.

The recently held SME digital summit had over one million digital participants during the three days, where participants learned and implemented digital solutions to restart or expand their businesses. Among the industry players that collaborated to assist participants in their digital journey were Exabytes, Digi Telecommunications, commerce.asia, EasyParcel, Zetpy, Maxis, HEXA Food, SITEC and Zapptech.

Additionally, The movement also features initiatives such as The Young Creators, #MYDigitalWorkforce Week and Gig and Freelance Expo (GFX). These focus on cultivating digital skills of talents, enhancing the capabilities of all Malaysians to monetise their new abilities and matching digital jobs with the right talents. The brands collaborating with The Young Creators initiative include TikTok, Snapchat and Binumi.

The content during these virtual events include webinar sessions, panel discussions and digital engagement opportunities. There will also be digital career fairs, online competitions and other satellite events. Leveraging MDEC’s robust network of strategic partners, many of these sessions will feature speakers from global and regional brands such as Google, Amazon, Tencent, Maxis, Hong Leong, Sharing Cities Alliance, IMPACT Malaysia and Fairwork.

Surina Shukri, CEO of MDEC said the allocations from PRIHATIN and PENJANA were the clearest signs that the government believed the digital economy was one of the main engines for Malaysia’s economic recovery – a vision that MDEC shared. “Driving digital competencies and digitalisation ensures everyone can tap into the myriad of opportunities that the digital economy brings in the rapidly evolving Fourth Industrial Revolution. #SayaDigital will also accelerate the building of a digital Malaysia, placing the nation as the heart of Digital ASEAN,” Shukri added.

Meanwhile Saifuddin Abdullah, minister of KKMM said he truly welcomed the launch of the #SayaDigital movement that was timely as the world now looked towards accelerating the digital economy. “After all, the growing demand within and around the digital sector will re-invigorate the country’s economy and, in quick order, create even more new job and economic opportunities for all Malaysians,” Abdullah added.

Separately, MDEC recently partnered with the Malaysia Digital Hub operators to address daily business operation challenges by offering affected start-ups and entrepreneurs an affordable daily ‘Digital Hub Pass’ to grow their businesses during post-COVID19. This was specifically designed as hotbeds for innovation, digital co-working spaces and incubators using digital technologies in their respective fields of specialisation. 

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