AdminThe Malaysia Global Business Forum (MGBF) will host a roundtable discussion on ‘Designing the Future of the Digital Economy’ on February 23, 2023. It is the culmination of the first three MGBF Exclusive Roundtable Series titled ‘The Evolving Threat Matrix in the Digital Economy,’ which took place in 2022.
The full-day event will delve into four strategic areas: ‘Addressing Cyber Threats to Develop an Investor-Friendly Country‘, ‘The Corporate Nexus and The Total Media Ecosystem‘, ‘Strategic Opportunities in the Data-Driven Digital Economy‘, and ‘The Digital Economy and Building an Equitable Future‘, while the keynote session will expand on the critical requirements of government strategy and future-facing policies for the digital economy.
MGBF was founded to empower stakeholders at the crossroads of international and Malaysian business. The forum will continue to explore threats and opportunities with industry leaders and policymakers through government relations, business intelligence, advocacy, media engagement, market research, networking, advisory, and business matching to ensure that Malaysia becomes a leader in the context of Asia.
Critical issues to be addressed include how to effectively manage talents in the evolving global digital economy, how to cascade effective strategy and policy into actionable projects that drive digital resilience, the interconnectedness of strategy and policy, and how to recover from a cyber-social crisis that affects reputation and share price, among others.
Murugason R Thangaratnam, CEO of Novem CS Sdn Bhd, speaking about the importance of resilience for the Malaysian digital economy at a roundtable by Malaysia Global Business Forum (MGBF). | Photo by MGBF
Future of Malaysia’s digital economy
The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) estimates that the digital economy currently accounts for 22.6% of the nation’s GDP, with a predicted increase to 25.5% by 2025. This level of contribution has made it critical for the Malaysia Global Business Forum to convene high-level speakers at a roundtable to discuss ways to chart the course for Malaysia’s digital economy’s future.
The upcoming MGBF roundtable will aim to position Malaysia in Southeast Asia’s digital economy, which was estimated to be worth USD200 billion (RM853 billion) in gross merchandise value (GMV) at the end of last year.
Malaysia is an investment destination for those looking to increase their market share in the digital economy, which will expand Malaysia’s trade and business opportunities. The tone for this to become a reality has been set by multilateral and bilateral trade agreements.
“Now is the opportunity to create a competitive edge through a business-led approach, empowered with the right policies and programmes implemented by the new administration. The recent pandemic was a catalyst for rapid digitisation. The data shows that trend has continued in Malaysia’s services sector. We will use the upcoming forum to release additional data via the ‘Digital Economy and Innovation Report 2023′.” MGBF’s Founding Chairman, Nordin Abdullah, said.
“With the rise of AI assistance such as ChatGPT, the future has been brought into our daily work lives. This is a natural evolution of the digital economy that not only needs to be managed, but understood in a way that drives productivity. This will be the only way that high-value jobs can be created and maintained in a future-facing economy,” continued Nordin.
Cybersecurity risk management
The 2023 Global Cybersecurity Outlook report claims that a wide-ranging, catastrophic cyber event is at least somewhat likely to occur in the next two years, with 91% of all respondents holding this belief. This has helped to close the perception gap between business and cyber leaders’ views on the importance of cyber-risk management.
In light of this, 43% of organisational leaders believe it is possible that a cyberattack will seriously harm their own organisation within the next two years, indicating that businesses are spending more money on operational defences than on strategic investments.
Murugason R. Thangaratnam, Chief Executive Officer of Novem CS Sdn Bhd – a key industry leader who will be addressing the forum, said, “The direction is clear, Malaysia will expand its economy to become increasingly digital. As the contribution to GDP increases so too does the value of targets to cyber criminals. The stakes have never been higher for the corporate sector looking to build empires on digital, data or innovation.”
“Novem’s internal research has shown that corporations spend between 10 to 100 times more post cyber incident than what they would have spent if they had implemented a simple cyber-resilient infrastructure with the requisite human capital development. Organisations have to realise that they need to strike a balance to avoid being too tech centric, by taking a holistic approach in securing the people, processes and governance framework to remain cyber resilient,” continued Murugason.
Delegate passes for this important discussion are available from RM500 per person. For more information visit www.MalaysiaGlobalBusinessForum.com
CJMY
