Industry experts from Google Malaysia, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Maxis, Grab, and PichaEats have urged workers and fresh graduates to equip themselves with digital adoption skills and to be ready for a faster digitalisation process compared to 2020.
Speaking at the Think with Google Breakfast Series: Peering into Malaysia’s Digital Future, the panelists highlighted Malaysia’s unexpected key trends to take place in the next five years.
“SMEs will shift towards being more adaptable in their process as they have to take a nimble approach in digitalising their business and not be left behind,” Managing Director of Google Malaysia, Marc Woo said.
Additionally, the other key trends are the growth of digitalisation in manufacturing, online education, meaningful partnerships between small and large corporations, and the changes in workspace.
“Corporations and SMEs have to quickly adopt digitalisation into their operations especially in the middle-end and back-end of their businesses,” Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MDEC, Surina Shukri added.
According to the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre (SEAC), Malaysian SMEs have increased their use of information and communication technologies, with 80 percent of businesses using computers and smartphones, and 70 percent using the internet in their business operations in 2018.
However, only 46.1 percent of SMEs used digital finance and accounting systems.
“With the higher bandwidth and low latency 5G provides, a faster digitalisation process will be due in the nearest times as 5G is not limited to a faster internet speed. 5G usage can be implemented into Malaysia’s agriculture, manufacturing, and lifestyle changes as well,” CEO of Maxis, Gokhan Ogut highlighted.
The Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) predicted that the implementation of 5G would contribute up to RM12.7 billion between 2021 and 2025 to the nation’s economy. This would also create more than 39,000 new job opportunities during the period.
Adding on, Co-Founder of PichaEats, Suzanne Ling emphasised that the Covid-19 outbreak has accelerated for a faster digitalisation for SMEs across Malaysia and SMEs are realising the importance to have a mobile app or a website for a better access to customers.
“With digitalisation, there will be more equal opportunities for more equal Malaysians. Likewise, in Grab, digitalisation offers resourcefulness for the team and that has enabled for instance a deaf driver to drive a blind passenger to the place of need. That can only be done with rapid digitalisation,” Managing Director of Grab Malaysia, Sean Goh concluded.
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