KUALA LUMPUR, March 28 — Malaysia needs to aspire to be a “frontrunner” on the digital frontier to fully unlock the economic benefits, says Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM).
In its 2017 Annual Report released here today, the central bank said transitioning the economy to “frontrunner” status could generate significant additional growth dividends of between US$100 billion-US$136 billion annually by 2025.
“The rapid pace of advancement in digitalisation is clearly evidenced in global data flows expanding 45-fold, while global merchandise trade only grew 1.5 times from 2005-2016,” it said.
As of now, Malaysia is categorised as an adopter, while advanced nations such as United States, Estonia, South Korea, Japan and Singapore are the “frontrunners”.
The report suggested that despite the constant growth in the global digital economy, the adoption from stakeholders, especially in e-commerce, is relatively low.
This is because, only 28.4 per cent of businesses have their own websites and 74.8 per cent fixed Internet connectivity, compared with 59.7 per cent and 99.3 per cent respectively in South Korea.
The report also suggested that for Malaysia to embrace digitalisation and technology advancement successfully, more graduates in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and technical would be needed.
Data collected showed that the number of graduates in the STEM field is relatively lower and stagnant from 2010 compared to graduates from arts and social sciences which increases yearly at a drastic pace.
“Left unaddressed, this development will perpetuate a skills mismatch as economic activity becomes more technologically and digitally advanced,” it said.
Another aspect that needs to be looked into seriously is the Internet speed as the report showed Malaysia’s Internet speed is only at the average level of 20 Megabits per second (Mbps) compared to nearly 70 Mbps in “frontrunner” countries.
“High broadband speed is vital for digital technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cloud Computing to thrive,” BNM said. – Bernama
