The Malaysia Global Business Forum (MGBF) will host a roundtable on “Designing the Future of the Digital Economy” on Feb 23, the culmination of the first three MGBF Exclusive Roundtable Series titled “The Evolving Threat Matrix in the Digital Economy” held during 2022.
According to Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), the digital economy is contributing 22.6% to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), with a projected growth to 25.5% by 2025.
This level of contribution has made it imperative for the MGBF to bring together high-level speakers at the roundtable to explore ways to chart the way forward for Malaysia’s digital economy.
Among the objectives of the coming MGBF roundtable is to position Malaysia in Southeast Asia’s digital economy, which was estimated to be valued at US$200 billion (RM853 billion) in gross merchandise value at the end of last year.
Malaysia is an investment destination for those expanding their market share in the digital economy, which will increase trade and business opportunities emanating from Malaysia. Multilateral and bilateral trade agreements have set the tone for this to become a reality.
MGBF’s founding chairman, Nordin Abdullah, said: “Now is the opportunity to create a competitive edge through a business-led approach, empowered with the right policies and programmes implemented by the new administration. The recent pandemic was a catalyst for rapid digitisation. The data shows that trend has continued in Malaysia’s services sector. We will use the upcoming forum to release additional data via the ‘Digital Economy and Innovation Report 2023’.”
He added, “With the rise of AI assistance such as ChatGPT, the future has been brought into our daily work lives. This is a natural evolution of the digital economy that not only needs to be managed, but understood in a way that drives productivity. This will be the only way that high-value jobs can be created and maintained in a future-facing economy.”
According to the the 2023 Global Cybersecurity Outlook report, global geopolitical instability has helped to close the perception gap between business and cyber leaders’ views on the importance of cyber-risk management, with 91% of all respondents believing that a far-reaching, catastrophic cyber event is at least somewhat likely in the next two years. Following from this, 43% of organisational leaders think it is likely that in the next two years, a cyberattack will materially affect their own organisation, which means enterprises are devoting more resources to day-to-day defences than strategic investment.
Novem CS Sdn Bhd CEO Murugason R. Thangaratnam, who will address the forum, said: “The direction is clear, Malaysia will expand its economy to become increasingly digital. As the contribution to GDP increases so too does the value of targets to cyber criminals. The stakes have never been higher for the corporate sector looking to build empires on digital, data or innovation.”
“Novem’s internal research has shown that corporations spend between 10 and 100 times more post-cyber incident than what they would have spent if they had implemented a simple cyber-resilient infrastructure with the requisite human capital development. Organisations have to realise that they need to strike a balance to avoid being too tech-centric, by taking a holistic approach in securing the people, processes and governance framework to remain cyber resilient,” he added.
The full-day event will delve into four strategic areas: Addressing Cyber Threats to Develop 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. The keynote session will expand on the critical requirements of government strategy and future-facing policies for the digital economy.
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