Najib: M’sia can achieve digital greatness
> Work with global players including China, PM tells local sector
KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak yesterday urged local digital-sector players to work with global technology communities to enable Malaysia to exploit fully the digital economy.
He said the sector could benefit immensely from such collaboration and cooperation, particularly with China given that country’s advanced and growing internet technology space.
He said China had seen the birth of many tech giants of its own such as Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu, and these were the epitome of today’s digital icons that every tech company wants to emulate.
“It is imperative that we provide Malaysians with a world-class network infrastructure and superfast connectivity, while boosting the development of industries towards fulfilling the government’s aspiration of elevating Malaysia into a high-income nation.
“The potential is limitless. All that is required is our willingness and readiness to explore opportunities,” he said at the Malaysia-China Digital Economy Forum held at a leading hotel here.
Najib, who is also finance minister, said the digital economy contributed 17.8% to Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP).
He said the demand for one million digital workers by 2025 had prompted Malaysia to integrate computational thinking and computer science into the national school curriculum by next year.
Najib said digital technology would play an even larger role in the economy over the next 10 years, when the 100 billionth connection is projected to happen.
The government has announced that 2017 will be the Year of the Internet Economy for Malaysia. – Bernama