The Malaysia Global Business Forum (MGBF) will hold a roundtable on “Designing the Future of the Digital Economy” on February 23. This is the final event in the “The Evolving Threat Matrix in the Digital Economy” series of three roundtables held in 2022.
Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) says that the digital economy makes up 22.6% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), and that number is expected to grow to 25.5% by 2025. Because of this level of contribution, it was important for the MGBF to have high-level speakers at the roundtable to talk about how to move Malaysia’s digital economy forward.
At the upcoming MGBF roundtable, one of the goals will be to position Malaysia in the digital economy of Southeast Asia, which was estimated to be worth US$200 billion (RM853 billion) in gross merchandise value at the end of last year.
Malaysia is a good place to invest for companies that want to grow their share of the digital economy’s market. This will lead to more trade and business opportunities coming out of Malaysia. The way for this to happen has been set by multilateral and bilateral trade agreements.
Nordin Abdullah, who started MGBF, said, “Now is the chance to gain a competitive edge through a business-led approach, with the help of the right policies and programmes put in place by the new government. The recent pandemic sped up the process of going digital. The data show that this trend has kept going in the services sector of Malaysia. We will share more information through the “Digital Economy and Innovation Report 2023” at the next forum.
“Malaysia will grow its economy to become more digital.”
– Murugason R. Thangaratnam
He also said, “The rise of AI help like ChatGPT has brought the future into our everyday work lives.” This is a natural development of the digital economy that needs to be not only managed, but also understood in a way that makes people more productive. In an economy that looks to the future, this is the only way that high-paying jobs can be made and kept.
According to the 2023 Global Cybersecurity Outlook report, global geopolitical instability has helped to close the gap between how business leaders and cyber leaders see the importance of cyber-risk management. 91% of all respondents think that a large-scale, catastrophic cyber event is at least somewhat likely to happen in the next two years. Because of this, 43% of business leaders think it’s likely that a cyberattack will have a big impact on their own company in the next two years. This means that businesses are spending more money on day-to-day defences than on strategic investments.
Murugason R. Thangaratnam, CEO of Novem CS Sdn Bhd, will speak at the forum. He said, “The direction is clear: Malaysia will grow its economy to become more digital. As a country’s contribution to the GDP goes up, so does the value of its targets to cybercriminals. Corporate leaders who want to build empires on digital, data, or innovation have never had more to lose.
“Novem’s internal research has shown that companies spend 10 to 100 times more after a cyber attack than they would have if they had put in place a simple cyber-resilient infrastructure and developed their human capital. “Organisations need to realise that they need to find a balance so they don’t become too tech-focused by taking a holistic approach to securing the people, processes, and governance framework to stay cyber resilient,” he said.
The full-day event will focus on four strategic areas: Addressing Cyber Threats to Create an Investor-Friendly Country, The Corporate Nexus and the Total Media Ecosystem, Strategic Opportunities in the Data-Driven Digital Economy, and The Digital Economy and Building an Equitable Future. During the keynote session, more will be said about how important it is for the digital economy that government strategies and policies look to the future.
Info source – The Sun Daily