KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 2): Ranked 5th in terms of average 4G speed in Southeast Asia — behind Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei and Myanmar — Malaysia’s low-speed and pricey broadband is a barrier to the country’s development and adoption of digital technology, the government said.

Rapidly changing technologies and its low adoption remain a challenge for Malaysia, especially for businesses, it said in its Economic Report 2018/2019 titled Fiscal Outlook 2019.

In Malaysia, smartphones remain the most popular means for users to access the internet, enabling the country to attain a mobile-oriented society. There were were 35.3 million mobile broadband subscriptions versus 2.6 million fixed broadband subscriptions in 2017, said the report.

“The improvement of broadband services to accelerate Malaysia’s development in the digital economy is vital,” the report said, adding there is room for improvement, especially in developing best practices and guidelines to manage security, as well as cloud security services in Malaysia.

The report also noted the need for the government to address the critical talent gap in areas like digital forensic, security administration and security analysis.

Apart from that, a safe and sound ecosystem is crucial for establishment of trust amongst customers and users, to enhance e-commerce and e-payment platforms further, the report said. It added that the value of Malaysia’s overall cybersecurity services, which is expected to reach US$632.6 million by 2021, is a new potential growth area to be explored.

Also, some highlighted top challenges seen as hindering the digital readiness of Malaysian key industries are: the lack of a structured approach and digitally-skilled workforce, as well as the perception that digital transformation is too fast and too complex.

As the digital economy offers tremendous opportunities for investment, technology convergence and megatrends, the report stated that daily operations could be further improved with concerted efforts, by investing in a conducive ecosystem, as well as in soft and hard infrastructures.