KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6 — The government is pioneering to make Malaysia into a regional artificial intelligence (AI) hub, said Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli in the Dewan Rakyat today.

He said that creating the best AI infrastructure in the region and attracting AI industry leaders will enable startups to engage Malaysia as the main focus of the industry.

Rafizi said the effort will be carried out through the implementation of a new strategy and improvement of the AI ecosystem that will be contained in the Kuala Lumpur 20 (KL20) action plan, which is expected to be launched in February 2024.

"KL20 aspires to accelerate the growth of the startup ecosystem in Malaysia and attract global AI startups to operate in the country.

"This will automatically bring venture capital investments other than the subsectors outlined previously in the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint or MyDIGITAL,” he said.

The minister was replying to Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah (PN-Indera Mahkota) who wanted to know the current status of MyDIGITAL.

Rafizi also said discussions have been conducted with some of the world’s giant AI companies to enable their technology to be brought into the country.

"Malaysia is able to provide start-up companies with processing capacity for developing AI, and this is not available anywhere else,” he added. — Bernama