Kuala Lumpur – Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has expressed his confidence in the country’s ability to achieve the 70 billion RM (16 billion USD) digital investment target by 2025, in line with the digital economy blueprint.

Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob (centre) (Photo: Bernama)

Speaking at the recent World Congress on Innovation & Technology (WCIT 2022), Ismail said Malaysia plays an important role as a digital investment hub in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

With world-class infrastructure, a holistic digital ecosystem, and highly skilled digital talent, Malaysia can become a major digital investment destination in ASEAN, he said.

Ismail said that since the MSC Malaysia initiative, which is now rebranded as Malaysia Digital (MD), was launched in 1996, the country had attracted digital investments worth 384 billion RM and generated 180,000 jobs as well as 588 billion RM in revenue.

He said although MD was only launched in July, it had managed to attract foreign direct digital investments worth 42 billion RM in just two months.

These investments came in via 28 foreign companies which are involved in data centres, IT services, technological creative content, and global business services or GBS, he added.