by BERNAMA / pic by TMR FILE 

KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) is targeting to attract more than RM300 million in committed investments, as well as 50 qualified business leads, during the Malaysia Digital Economy Week from Jan 9 to 15 at Expo 2020 Dubai.

Senior vice-president Raymond Siva said about 20 local technology companies from Malaysia will be participating during the week, showcasing the breadth and depth of the country’s digital ecosystem to the world at the world expo.

He revealed that some of the 20 local tech companies are from areas such as fintech, drone, and digital content that MDEC helped to nurture.

“The expo has already attracted about 8.9 million visitors and more are anticipated to come in the next six months,” he said during The Brief programme on Bernama TV today. “So we are taking the opportunity to highlight the work and growth that have been done around the digital space, especially over that last two years, in light of the pandemic which had forced digitalisation and innovation (on companies).”

MDEC has also lined up several catalytic programmes that would be announced during the digital week to attract investments into Malaysia’s digital industry.

“There will be some announcements in the middle of the week onwards that will put Malaysia in a very strong position as a digital hub for ASEAN,” he continued. “It is really about attracting digital investments into Malaysia and to enhance its digital ecosystems.”

He said this was also in line with the initiative to establish Malaysia as the region’s preferred Digital Nomad Hub, a programme that was introduced in Budget 2022.

Raymond highlighted that during the week, various collaboration agreements such as memorandums of understanding (MoUs) would be announced and that the Malaysia Digital Economy Week would also present the participating companies the opportunity to network with other international participants while opening market access opportunities for them.