KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 14 — The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) has urged Malaysian small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to accelerate and scale up their digital transformation journey.

It said the entrepreneurs could register with the Digital Xccelerator (DX) platform and take the #digitalleap to ensure they can sustain their operations and expand further from there.

Chief executive officer Surina Shukri said the DX platform is designed to help SMEs gain access to available programmes, incentives and technology solutions that best match their specific digitalisation needs.

"The DX platform is a new free-of-charge initiative that was launched during the MDEC inaugural SME Digital Summit.

"For MDEC, the next step is to sustain the momentum generated by the SME Digital Summit. The DX platform that we have launched is critical to this effort,” she said in a statement.

The summit is the first digital conference of its kind in Malaysia and organised as a virtual platform to help empower Malaysia’s SMEs to take the digital leap by cultivating an innovative and transformative mindset.

It also inaugurated MDEC’s #SayaDigital Month, an initiative designed to accelerate the growth of a digital society in Malaysia.

The month-long campaign aims to expand digital competence and adoption among all Malaysians, empowering them to navigate the new normal within society and business.

The summit held from August 11 until August 13, garnered a record breaking one million digital participations that joined various curated digital panel discussions, conferences, workshops, and training clinics.

Most of the talks were organised in collaboration with over 60 event partners comprising local businesses, multinational companies, digital solution providers, industry leaders, as well as public and private agencies.

"We certainly hope that the valuable insights and networks they gained from the summit will help catalyse the broader digitalisation of our economy, as we aim to encourage all Malaysians to embrace the concept of living in this new era of disruption and also generate greater shared prosperity for the entire nation,” Surina said.

Both the SME Digital Summit and DX platform are the latest efforts under MDEC’s ongoing 100 Go Digital initiative which was launched last year, seeking to enable traditional Malaysian businesses in key sectors to move towards digitalisation.

To this end, MDEC works with enterprises to solve pain-points across the ever-changing digitalisation landscape by offering various programmes to help businesses enhance their customer experience, gain new market segments and boost sales.

Meanwhile, another highlight of the summit was the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between MDEC and Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC), aimed at boosting the digitalisation movement for Malaysian businesses via initiatives such as the Digital Victory Virtual Business Clinic (DVVBC).

DVVBC is an advisory support to assist businesses in their digitalisation needs and accelerate their journey in taking the digital leap.

The comprehensive platform offers one to one free consultancy with business leaders in technology solutions, strategic positioning, business operations and financial consultation, among others.

The MoU was signed by MPC director general Datuk Abdul Latif Abu Seman and Surina.

Abdul Latif said the new initiative would boost productivity and economic competitiveness across the tech sectors.

"On MPC’s part, we target 1,000 companies to productively gain advantage from DVVBC in the next four months. The platform is created to reach and impact up to more than 500,000 businesses in the country,” he said in a separate statement.

In addition, Digital Productivity Nexus champion, Datuk Wei Chuan Beng said the DVVBC platform is an opportunity for companies to boost the momentum for business expansion and going big with digital.

As companies recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, he sees it as the only way to expand. — Bernama