Malaysia ranks 24th in Huawei Global Connectivity Index 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is progressing in its digital transformation agenda, ranking 24th in the Huawei Global Connectivity Index (GCI) 2017, a notch higher from its 25th position last year.

According to a report published on the GCI website, the United States topped the index’s list of 50 nations, followed by Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom respectively.

The GCI indicates digital economy performance based on indicators encompassing five technology enablers, namely broadband, data centres, cloud, big data and the Internet of Things (IOT).

Malaysia received full marks in its high ratio of mobile broadband penetration and scored 8/ 10 for affordable fixed and mobile broadband, which is relatively high compared to other adopters.

It noted that the government’s Budget 2017 had revealed a continued strong focus on the digital economy, with allocations for resources and investment in the development of the e-commerce ecosystem, the Digital Maker movement and the introduction of Malaysia Digital Hub.

The Digital Maker movement is an initiative to transform Malaysian youth from digital users to producers, via collaboration between the public and private sectors, as well as academia.

Meanwhile, the Malaysia Digital Hub was established for the start-up community in the digital economy, offering unique value propositions such as hyper-speed broadband,hot-desking,mentoring and coaching services.

The report also noted that Malaysia had rapidly improved its broadband download speed and penetration within the last few years, outperforming many other Southeast Asian countries.

However, the report noted that the country is lagging behind in terms of establishing data centres and cloud storage, stating that the country should begin shifting its focus to accelerate the deployment of cloud services, data analytics, and the Internet of Things.

In terms of opportunities, it noted thatMalaysiaislookingtocooperate with cloud service providers to accelerate cloud transformation for telecommunication service providers, and aims to drive the adoption of data centre solutions based on its software- defined infrastructure. — Bernama