Last January 2022, Malaysian tech companies took to the world’s stage to showcase their unique innovation at the Malaysia Digital Economy Week (DEW) at Expo 2020 Dubai. After a strong showing from the country’s delegation, the contingent was able to successfully land deals with international technology companies comprising 16 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs).
Organised by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Ministry, in cooperation with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), DEW was a week-long event that focused on promoting Malaysia as a globally competitive digital nation.
Malaysian innovation prove to be attractive to global players
The signing of the 16 MoUs underlines the potential of some of Malaysia’s most prominent tech companies in technology sectors, such as DroneTech, Islamic and conventional FinTech, and Blockchain. The companies involved in the MoUs include Aerodyne, Accubits, ASC, ASDAM Digital, CALMs Technologies, CreateWills, DistiChain, Examus, FREYA Capital, Galaxy Racer, Gulf Business Machines, Global Psytech, Grayscale Technologies, HID Global, KGiSL Information Systems, National General Insurance, Numa Solution, Qatar Financial Centre (QFC), The Noor and Valeuble DMCC.
These MoUs signify ongoing global interest in Malaysia’s robust digital economy ecosystem. Malaysia is a leading nation in emerging technology industries – as they received top ranking in the Global Islamic Fintech (GIFT) Index while its DroneTech innovators are globally recognised players.
The signing of these MoUs will not only allow Malaysian tech companies to expand their reach internationally but spotlight the strength of their digital ecosystem.
Global Psytech is one of the Malaysian tech companies that made their way to DEW. The company signed MoU’s with two companies from the United States to enhance their product offerings and also expand their market outreach to SEA and beyond.
Global Psytech is a data tech company developing cutting-edge analytic solutions that apply psychometrics, AI and machine learning.
Nur Ayu Johar, co-founder of Global Psytech, said the engagements with visitors or trade partners during the Digital Economy Week “served as a golden window of opportunity not just to talk about what we do, but to share with them on systemic barriers that are apparent, affecting the majority of the global population such as lack of credit information.”
“I was also a panellist for the Industry Talk: Gateway to The Global Islamic Digital Economy, alongside Global Sadaqah, and Microleap, and we had an insightful conversation on how our solutions create a dynamic and inclusive environment for society through mechanisms in line with the principles of Islamic Finance,” continued Ayu Johar.
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The Digital Economy Week has been a productive and rewarding experience for Global Psytech with the company founder remarking: “As far as potential business partners, we have achieved business deals amounting to more than a couple millions ringgit. For Global Psytech, we do not just advocate for financial inclusion, but we do the groundwork and have solutions for the underbanked and underserved.”
“We have had companies who are interested in our talent analytic solutions, including vendor management, some have expressed interest in analysing the behaviour of their app users, we have also encountered with companies were are interested for us to join programmes to increase our visibility in the MENA region, specially in the FinTech space,” concluded Ayu Johar.
Meanwhile, technology solutions provider Numa Solution founder Azhim Hadi Daud said they signed a MOU with Gulf Business Machines (GBM) to act as the distributor of their financial analytics solution covering multiple industries namely banking and financial institution, oil and gas, healthcare among others.
GBM is one of the largest distributors of IT solutions in the GCC region and this deal will cover multiple countries namely United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar.
“We are targeting opportunities in excess of USD10 million for the next couple of years,” added Azhim.
Azhim feels there are a lot of opportunities in Dubai and the Gulf region for their IT solutions. “This can be attributed to multiple factors namely conducive business conditions, bigger addressable market and the appetite for the latest and greatest technologies for the business and enterprise. Talking to multiple businesses here in Dubai and GCC, the trend of the market does not show any slowing down in terms of consumption which is good news for companies like ours,” said Azhim.
On the other hand, Grayscale Technologies General Manager Tunku Izzudin Shah bin Tengku Abdul Hamid Thani, said he was happy to connect and make partnerships to explore what products and technologies they can bring to Malaysia.
“We were able to present the future direction of Grayscale Technologies as we move towards the Industrial Revolution 4.0. Being in a competitive field, we are able to potentially collaborate with IT companies from different countries, as the IT industry is huge and offers different types of services.”
Tunku Izzudin said they have signed three MoUs during DEW: “The first MoU is with Accubits, which specialises in implementing Blockchain technology in various industries, Big Data and also Artificial Intelligence. The second MoU is with FRENDS, a data integration platform that uses a low-code approach, and finally with Nordic Apiary to bring Nordic technology companies to the Southeast Asian market (SEA).”
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Tunku Izzudin believes the partnerships will generate millions of ringgit in revenues over the next few years,: “For our partnership with FRENDS, we are looking to generate a recurring annual revenue of over RM 33 Million from year 4 onwards. From our partnership with Nordic Apiary, we are looking to generate a recurring annual revenue of over RM 100 Million from year 4 onwards. From our partnership with Accubits, we are looking to generate around RM 6.7 Million this year, to RM 13.43 Million in the year 2023, to RM 33.79 Million in 2024, to RM 53.45 Million in 2025 and lastly, to RM 73.31 Million in 2026.”
In addition to these deals, Grayscale is in talks with two IT solution companies based in Dubai to expand in both South East Asia and also the UAE. Tunku Izzudin added that by participating in the Expo and Malaysia Digital Economy week: “we were able to understand what the other IT companies are doing or venturing in the various countries, which strongly indicates that we are ahead technologically.”
Digital Economy Week as launching pad for Malaysia Digital
The Digital Economy Week at Expo 2020 Dubai also served as a platform to launch the Malaysia Digital programme. This project is designed to help accelerate Malaysia’s digital economy through a new framework centred on three primary components: Agility, Flexibility, and Relevance.
Malaysia Digital will offer options for companies to choose incentives and the flexibility for them to grow, expand, or reinvest anywhere within Malaysia. Improved governance and processes under the Malaysia Digital initiative will also see the Government and MDEC introducing two new initiatives, namely DE Rantau and Malaysia Digital Trade.
DE Rantau is a programme designed to establish Malaysia as a preferred Digital Nomad Hub in a bid to boost digital professional mobility and tourism across the country.
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Malaysia Digital Trade is an initiative to drive interoperability and better implementation of standards and regulatory approaches in order to facilitate trade across borders and capitalise on the immense opportunities in digitalisation that has been accelerated by the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
These new projects are powered by MDEC’s mission to drive the digital economy through catalytic, high-impact initiatives, as well as strategic and sustainable investments and inclusive policies.
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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by MDEC
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