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The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) encourages startups to take advantage of ‘Malaysia Digital Hubs’ to unlock their potential and ensure sustainability during challenging times. In conjunction with the #Saya Digital Month, MDEC and ‘Malaysia Digital Hub’ operators will address startups daily business operatiion challenges by offering affordable daily Digital Hub Pass,’ an ideal package to grow their businesses during post-Covid-19.
‘Malaysia Digital Hubs’ is an extension of the MSC Malaysia Cybercentre that was created for startups and digitally-powered businesses. It is specifically designed as hotbeds for innovation, digital coworking spaces and incubators using digital technologies in their respective fields of specialisation.
With the pandemic, most startups have been affected, especially in continuing their business operations as they were faced with difficulties such as paying high rental costs and long-term contract durations. These start-ups are looking at flexible and cost-effective options, which MDEC believes that incubators and coworking spaces like Malaysia Digital Hubs can assist them.
Through these facilities, start-ups can access vital assistance such a mentorship, funding opportunities, accelerator programmes, corporate partnership and other business and digital development programmes.
According to Gopi Ganesalingam, Vice President of MDEC’s Global Growth Acceleration (GGA) division, tech start-ups are undeniably the key drivers of digital transformation in the country.
“To recapitulate MDEC’s #Saya Digital campaign, going digital is no longer a corporate mantra but part of our daily lifestyle, especially from contactless payment transactions, to e-learning in schools, digital ID at dwellings, remote working solutions and all these have become instrumental in transforming our societies and social norms,” Gopi said.
He further explained that by looking at these vast opportunities, MDEC is steadfast in its support of the entrepreneurial ecosystem by digitally-empowering Malaysian businesses, while supporting the country’s economic recovery.
“We are delighted to partner with the Malaysia Digital Hubs operators to offer this ‘Digital Hub Pass’ which will certainly help them scale up, build business acumen and innovation skills,” Gopi added.
In total, there are seven certified ‘Malaysian Digital Hubs’ supporting over 400 startups. The “Malaysia Digital Hubs’ are also in partnership with other accelerators and tech-based multinational companies (MNCs) like Google, Amazon and Microsoft to build talent pool and provide funding opportunities (through partners like Cradle, Gobi Partners, etc), community engagements, events, mentorship, training, hackathons and various accelerator programmes.
The Malaysia Digital Hub is part of MDEC’s initiative to accelerate Malaysia’s digital economy growth, while ensuring socio-economic inclusivity by focusing on three key pillars: Digitally-skilled Malaysians, Digitally-powered businesses, and Digital investments.
At the moment, among the ‘Malaysia Digital Hubs’ that are supporting the ‘Digital Hub Pass’ initiative include Common Ground, CO., Dojo KL, UnionSPACE and WORQ located in the Klang Valley area. Tech entrepreneurs, who are not existing tenants of the participating coworking spaces can obtain the ‘Digital Hub Pass’ directly from the selected ‘Malaysia Digital Hubs’.
The Malaysia Digital Hubs provide rich ecosystem components, which include high-speed broadband and various soft infra offerings. This initiative also coincides with the recent acknowledgment of Kuala Lumpur being ranked as 11th emerging start-up ecosystem in the Global Start-up Ecosystem Report 2020 (GSER2020) by Start-up Genome.
The report positioned Kuala Lumpur as an ideal location for start-ups, citing low costs; the high quality of living and talent; providing fast-tracked visas; and robust government support which are some of the prime reasons for entrepreneurs to either start or move their businesses to Malaysia.
Kuala Lumpur’s start-up ecosystem is valued at USD15 billion (versus global average of USD10.5 billion) and ranked 4th emerging ecosystem in the Asia Pacific. The overall scores achieved by the country provides compelling evidence that the country is taking the digital leap to attract digital investments and raise the profile to become the Heart of Digital ASEAN.
