KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 — Fearing that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and startups may be left behind giant firms in adopting new technologies like 5G, Putrajaya has today vowed to close this digital divide.

Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said a new business model might be needed for these businesses to keep up with the times.

"On the side of the government, we have had various policies for greater adoption previously or was announced in October of last year, digitisation grants or soft loans via some of the banks that can help businesses adopt some of the newer technologies.

"So I think when we prepare for Budget 2025, some of these considerations can be brought to the attention of MoF,” he said in a press conference here, referring to the Ministry of Finance.

Fahmi made his remark after telecommunications companies Maxis Bhd and Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd earlier launched its "5.5G” or "5G advanced” network, which aims to increase industrial productivity in the country.

The companies claimed that the new technology is 10 times faster than the current 5G network and it has reached its network speed of over 8GBps.

"So I can see the deployment of this kind of technology requires perhaps some new business models as well as some assistance from the government for adoption," Fahmi said.

"But exactly how exactly the government will assist, we have yet to discuss but we are prepared to listen to industry to understand the needs and requirements and then we can work from there.”

In the same event, Fahmi also disclosed that as of last month, more than 10 million people in the country have adopted the 5G network.

He said the figure saw an increase of 17.4 per cent from November last year, according to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).