Digital Malaysia announces two new initiatives

• Initiatives to accelerate e-commerce, improve quality of life at religious schools
• Cybersale inspired by Black Monday, crowdfunding for Pondok via pitchIN

THE Ninth Digital Malaysia Steering Committee has tabled two new initiatives at its most recent meeting, one to accelerate e-commerce via a nationwide ‘cybersale’ and the other to improve the quality of life for traditional religious institutions (Sekolah Pondok) through crowdfunding.
 
The cybersale, scheduled to take place in the third quarter of the year, is part of Digital Malaysia’s ongoing efforts to accelerate the growth of the e-commerce sector by boosting participation from both vendors and buyers, Multimedia Development Corp said in a statement.
 
The sale will be similar to the Cyber Monday phenomenon in the United States, and seeks to draw participation from Malaysia’s leading retailers with the support of partners from the banking, logistics and telecommunications industry, MDeC said.
 
MDeC is the lead agency overseeing Digital Malaysia, which aims to transform the nation into a ‘digital economy.’
 
“E-commerce is a key component of the digital economy. Its significance has also been recognised as one of the key ICT subsectors in the Digital Malaysia 354 Roadmap,” said Ahmad Shabery Cheek, Minister of Communications and Multimedia, who is Chairman of the Digital Malaysia Steering Committee, said
 
“This is a good initiative that will bring leading retailers and customers together under one roof and will further boost the adoption of e-commerce in Malaysia. We are confident that this event will be able to further popularise online shopping as a convenient and exciting experience,” he said.
 
Digital Malaysia also announced a new initiative to facilitate societal uplift for the Pondok community, a part of the B40 group (the lower 40% of the Malaysian population in terms of household income).
 
The initiative, which will first take place in Kedah as a pilot state, will profile Pondok institutions to identify gaps and potential solutions that can be addressed via digital means.
 
It also aims to promote ICT adoption and usage by Pondok communities to improve their quality of life, enable them to earn income and uplift their overall reputations.
 
Led by MDeC with the support of Yayasan Pembangunan Pondok Malaysia (YPPM) as the public sector champion and pitchIN as the private sector partner, the initiative will leverage on current ICT programmes, digital applications and crowdsourcing models (including social crowdfunding) to uplift the Pondok community.
 
“The digital economy presents many income-generating opportunities. The B40 who may be less conversant with technology can still benefit from the many digital platforms,” said MDeC chief executive officer Badlisham Ghazali (pic).
 
Digital Malaysia is a national programme to advance the country towards a developed digital economy by 2020 by creating an ecosystem that promotes the pervasive use of digital technology in all aspects of the economy.
 
This will include connecting communities globally and in real time, in order to increase the nation’s Gross National Income (GNI), enhance productivity and improve standards of living, MDeC said.
 
Collectively, Digital Malaysia aims to achieve the following: the creation of 160,000 high value jobs, increase Malaysia’s ICT contribution from 9.8% to 17%, provide an additional 1% SME (small and medium enterprise) contribution to Gross Domestic Product and create an additional RM7,000 of digital income per annum for 350,000 Citizens.
 
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