With digital transformation being an important catalyst for Malaysia’s inclusive economic recovery, MyDIGITAL and the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint announced today by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, is an important milestone that will enable Malaysia to take advantage of the breadth of opportunity that technology offers.

We congratulate the Government for putting a bold digital vision forward. We applaud the holistic approach and strategies outlined in the Blueprint encompassing digital connectivity, infrastructure and skillsets, which will help Malaysia to be a digitally-driven high-income nation and a regional leader in the digital economy, in achieving inclusive, responsible and sustainable socio-economic development.

As the nation takes the next leap forward in its digital economy, Microsoft is ready and excited to play our part to help Malaysia realise the aspirations of MyDIGITAL. We believe public-private partnerships will help further propel Malaysia’s digital economic growth forward. In this regard, we will continue to help enable a digitally-enabled government, empower businesses to innovate and build resilience digitally, and help bridge the digital divide to ensure Malaysians can enjoy improved digital literacy and improved social wellbeing. This is in line with our mission to empower every person and every organisation to achieve more.

Accelerating innovation with Malaysia’s Cloud-First Strategy

Microsoft is committed to partnering Malaysia to lead the digital economy forward and achieve the Government’s Cloud-First strategy under the MyDIGITAL blueprint. We are confident that this will pave the way for the use of greater cloud services including Big Data, AI and IOT, thus enhancing government services and benefit the rakyat. Additionally, we welcome the Government’s faith in Microsoft to be one of the nation’s cloud service providers and we will continue to look for opportunities to expand our footprint in Malaysia.

Further to this, we recognise that local businesses, including micro, small and medium entrepreneurs (MSMEs) and start-ups are the backbone of Malaysia’s growth. Microsoft will continue to bolster our efforts in partnership with the public and private sectors to strengthen upscale local MSMEs and strengthen the local start-up ecosystem, through digital innovation.

Empowering a digital workforce in Malaysia

We believe that expanded access to digital skills is an important step in accelerating economic recovery. As Malaysia is open for business with its future anchored on a digital-first economy, the digital workforce will be an important driver for the nation’s economic recovery. People are the most important renewable resource that we must continue to invest in, especially job seekers who have been affected by COVID-19 pandemic. Microsoft is committed to supporting the government in addressing unemployment challenges and matching talent supply with industry demand, through skilling initiatives and partnerships with academia.

As part of Microsoft’s response to the pandemic, we announced our global commitment to bring digital skills to more than 25 million people worldwide and we are encouraged that more than 36,000 Malaysians have accessed our free learning resources to date. Moving forward, we will continue to combine the best in technology with a stronger partnership with the government, nonprofits and to help people develop the skills needed to secure new opportunities in Malaysia’s growing digital economy.

Partnering Malaysia towards a digitally-enabled and technology-driven high-income nation

The launch of MyDIGITAL marks the way forward to realise a shared future of prosperity for all Malaysians. Microsoft will continue to partner with Malaysia and deliver on our commitment to drive inclusive economic growth and innovation to ensure that every person, the private and public sectors can succeed in Malaysia’s digital-first economy.

Together, we stand with Malaysia.

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