Deq on Deck: United For Digital Sovereignty

Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Ta’ala Wabarakatuh and Salam Sejahtera,

Greetings,

You may have heard of the term ‘Digital Sovereignty’. It is the idea of having control over our own digital destiny through the data, hardware, and software that we create, share and rely on.

On a policy-making level, digital sovereignty is an important aspect to consider, as there is a growing concern that too much digital control is ceded to too few places, in a tech market that has too little choices.

By upholding digital sovereignty and integrating technology with society, we can chart our digital course on our own terms. More importantly, we can frame policies on digital use, consumption and investment that will drive inclusivity, sustainability, and shared prosperity.

We can better our nation, lower the income gap, democratise digital access and opportunities for all Malaysians.

It is easy to be driving progress for progress’s sake, forgetting that progress should ultimately benefit the people. Serving the Rakyat is our primary mandate – an aspect that I am sure we always keep in mind.  

On 6 September, MDEC was graced with an official working visit by Communications and Multimedia Minister YB Tan Sri Datuk Seri Panglima TPr Annuar Haji Musa. Our discussions with him and the Ministry not only gave us the opportunity to align our vision and mission with the government and policymakers, but also to reiterate our focus–that we, as a whole, serve the interests of the Rakyat.

It begins with our own self-improvement. YBM reiterated for MDEC to be positioned as the leading agency for Malaysia and ASEAN’s digital economy and aspires for us to improve our internal processes to emerge as a high-performance agency.

There is no doubt that this is what we will be striving for moving forward, as we re-emphasise our focus towards driving positive impact to the people.

Throughout the week, I have been able to connect and continue to seek deeper collaboration with digital economy stakeholders.

I also had the opportunity to meet with Dato’ Azmar Talib, CEO of Tun Razak Exchange (TRX). We had a great discussion on MDEC’s investment promotion activities to support TRX and Bandar Malaysia.

Our recently announced DIF5 strategy allows us to focus on bringing digital investments and sustainable ecosystem development programmes in both Islamic Digital Economy and FinTech–two segments crucial to the development of the economy and the expansion of financial access across the country.

Last week also ended on a good note. By the good graces of the Prime Minister and the Malaysian government, the creative industry is allowed to resume operations from 9 September.

This is a tremendous step towards national recovery, and a relief to more than 19,000 companies in the industry. MDEC has been doing our best to bolster this important segment throughout the pandemic, with initiatives that include the Digital Content Creators Challenge and the Digital Content Grant.

Now it is time for us to redouble our support and help them overcome the rocky terrain as they reopen during an ongoing pandemic.

Digital Sovereignty is something Malaysia must build and uphold for ourselves. To do so, we need to empower the people to take that step with us through the right tools, access, and support.

We need to stand #DigitalUnited.

Yours, Mahadhir @ maDEQ