Page 327 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 2

STS497 Hasnah M. et al.

Measuring the digital economy: Malaysia’s
experience
Hasnah Mat, Norul Anisa Abu Safran, Mazreha Ya’akub
Department of Statistics Malaysia

Abstract
In 2019, Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia (MCMM) has
stated that the policy to empower digital economy is being formulated and is
expected to be announced in the third quarter of this year. A program based
on strategic trusts to advance Malaysia towards a developed digital economy
by 2020 was established by Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC)
and other relevance agencies since year 2012. The aim is to build an ecosystem
that promotes the extensive use of Information Communication Technology
(ICT) in all aspects of the economy to create communities connected globally
and interacting in real-time. In an effort to build a vibrant digital economy for
Malaysia, reliable and comprehensive statistics that are internationally
comparable is essential to monitor the progress towards achieving digital
economy and formation of better policies. Thus, Department of Statistics,
Malaysia (DOSM) has took the initiative to produce the significance statistics
through the surveys on Usage of ICT and e-commerce by establishment
(ICTEC), ICT Use and Access by Individuals and Households survey (ICTHS) and
Information & Communication survey (AES-ICT). Therefore, this paper aims to
share the compilation of digital economy statistics and its contribution to
Malaysia. Generally, in 2017 contribution of ICT to the national economy
steadily grew by 10.3 per cent from 2016 which registered RM247.1 billion. ICT
industry also recorded RM68.2 billion for compensation of employees with a
share of 38.2 per cent to GDP. While the value added of e-commerce increased
to RM85.8 billion as compared to RM75.0 billion in 2016.

Keywords
Digital economy, ICT, e-commerce

1. Introduction
Digital economy and the broad application of ICT nowadays have driven
the borderless world to spark rapid competition and dissemination of
information through the virtual world. This transformation has brought many
changes in the society and has affected the pattern of human life. The
spreading and sharing of information around the world become easier with
ICT technology. The importance of the digital economy has attracted

316 | I S I W S C 2 0 1 9