On 4 July 2022, the Government of Malaysia launched a new digital economy initiative, namely the Malaysia Digital ("Malaysia Digital Initiative"). It is intended to replace the 25-year-old Multimedia Super Corridor agenda to become the primary national strategic initiative on the digital economy in Malaysia.
This initiative was established by the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia through its digital economy agency, the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation ("MDEC"). The vision behind this initiative is to accelerate economic growth in nine areas, namely (i) digital trade, (ii) digital agriculture, (iii) digital services, (iv) digital cities, (v) digital health, (vi) digital finance, (vii) digital content, (viii) digital tourism, and (ix) Islamic digital economy.
As part of this initiative, the Government of Malaysia, through MDEC, will award Malaysia Digital Status ("MD Status") to eligible companies that participate in and undertake any of the prescribed activities under the Malaysia Digital Initiative. Eligible activities include financial technology (fintech), data centre and cloud services, artificial intelligence, and robotics.
MD Status companies will be entitled to a set of incentives, rights and privileges from the Government, subject to necessary approvals and compliance with the applicable laws and regulations. These benefits are collectively termed as the Malaysia Digital ("MD") Bill of Guarantees ("BoGs"). The BoGs represents the manifestation of the Government's intention to facilitate the growth and development of MD Status companies. Under the BoGs, MD Status companies are eligible to apply for and/or enjoy certain incentives such as tax incentives and exemption, and greater flexibility to source capital and funds globally, among others. In order to facilitate the applications of prospective applicants, MDEC has also launched the Malaysia Digital Platform to consolidate and ease the application procedure for all interested entities.
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