PUTRAJAYA (Aug 5): Malaysia's digital investment soared to RM66.22 billion in the first half of this year (1H 2024), demonstrating robust growth and resilience of the digital economy despite global geopolitical tensions.

Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo said this was a significant achievement, noting that the amount has already surpassed the full-year digital investment for 2023 which stood at RM46.2 billion.

He attributed the strong upward trajectory to stronger investor confidence and the economy's forecast growth of 4-5% this year.

“This investment inflow created 25,498 jobs in 1H 2024, surpassing the 22,258 tally recorded in 2023. The digital sector continues to be a powerhouse for high-skilled, high-income employment," he said in a statement Monday.

As for digital exports, Gobind said the ministry’s efforts via the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation’s (MDEC) partnerships and business matching programmes generated export opportunities worth over RM1.93 billion.

These involve 228 companies from 11 countries, namely Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Türkiye, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Taiwan, Kenya, Tanzania and the United Kingdom.

This represents an increase of over 43% from the export opportunities worth RM1.35 billion generated in 1H 2023, he said.

Gobind said MDEC's DEX Connex initiatives in the Philippines and Indonesia as well as business missions have significantly contributed to the export opportunities in the first half of 2024.

“It is worth noting that data centres and cloud companies collectively contributed the lion’s share of digital investment value across all sectors.

“Information Technology (Infotech) and Global Business Services (GBS) companies took the lead in digital job creation, as they race to set up their centres of excellence and high-value GBS operations in Malaysia," he said.

He added that 451 tech companies have been awarded the Malaysia Digital (MD) Status in 1H 2024 (2023: 256 companies).

"Of these, 39% are foreign companies contributing to foreign direct investments, while 61% are local companies," he said.

Gobind said companies with MD Status are entitled to many incentives, rights and privileges from the government, subject to necessary approvals and compliance with applicable conditions.

The benefits include competitive tax incentives and duty import and sales tax exemption on the importation of multimedia equipment, access to local and foreign knowledge workers, exemption from local ownership requirements, and access to funding facilitation.

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