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29 October, 2019
The Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation Sdn Bhd (“MDEC”) recently announced that Malaysia has the potential to become a digital hub for ASEAN as Malaysia is in a position to spread the growth of the digital economy throughout the region. Likewise, Ernst & Young’s ASEAN FinTech Census 2018 dubbed Malaysia as an “emerging fintech hub in Asia”. The country’s increasingly digitalised economy, which is tailored to boost start-up presence and draw in investors, together with support from Malaysian government and regulators, will also create a mature fintech ecosystem which will contribute to Malaysia’s potential to be the hub for digital economy of the ASEAN region.
Whilst Singapore stands out in terms of being a mature fintech market in the region this also means that there is an emerging opportunity for less-developed markets that are growing rapidly in terms of income per head, population growth, online access and smartphone usage. According to the Network Readiness Index (“NRI”), Malaysia is ranked at number 31 out of 139 countries in terms of their readiness to transition to a digitised economy and society. Whilst Singapore is ranked at number 1, the rest of the ASEAN countries were ranked quite low in the NRI (with ranking between 60 and 80).
This measure is important for businesses looking to enter new countries as it can easily determine if the country can support a business that relies on the Internet.
The full article can be found from Zicolaw's site here.
For more information, please contact:
Wei Min Chua, Director, ZICO IP
wei.min.chua@zicolaw.com
