MyDigital Blueprint
The Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint, known as MyDIGITAL, is Malaysias national strategy to transform the country into a digitally driven, high-income economy by 2030, with AI as a core enabler.
The MyDIGITAL Blueprint, formally the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint, is the Government of Malaysias national strategy to transform the country into a digitally enabled, technology-driven high-income nation by 2030. It was launched on 19 February 2021 by the Prime Minister of Malaysia and is overseen by the MyDIGITAL Corporation, which sits within the National Economic Action Council. The blueprint articulates a vision in which Malaysia is a regional leader in the digital economy by 2030, achieving inclusive, responsible, and sustainable socioeconomic development, with artificial intelligence positioned as one of the critical enabling technologies alongside cloud computing, big data analytics, IoT, blockchain, and advanced connectivity.
The blueprint sets six strategic thrusts, 22 strategies, 48 national initiatives, and 28 sectoral initiatives organised in three phases. Phase 1 (2021–2022) focused on foundational reforms, including the rollout of 5G via the Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) wholesale network and the establishment of governance bodies. Phase 2 (2023–2025) emphasised digitalisation of industries and the public sector, talent development, and the launch of the National AI Office. Phase 3 (2026–2030) targets sectoral transformation and AI-native deployment across financial services, healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing, and government services.
Targets and outcomes
MyDIGITAL sets quantitative targets across the digital economy. The digital economy contribution to gross domestic product is targeted at 25.5 percent by 2025 and at least 30 percent under the AI Nation 2030 vision announced by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in August 2024. The blueprint targets 500,000 jobs created in the digital economy, the digitalisation of 875,000 micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and the attraction of two unicorns headquartered in Malaysia by 2030. Productivity across all sectors is expected to grow by 30 percent compared with 2020 baselines, with AI cited as a primary lever.
Investment performance has tracked ahead of several targets. Between 2021 and June 2025, Malaysia attracted approximately MYR 144.4 billion (about USD 30 billion) in data-centre and cloud investment, with announced commitments from Microsoft, Google, Amazon Web Services, Oracle, ByteDance, Tencent, and Alibaba Cloud. The broader digital investment pipeline reportedly exceeded USD 59 billion as of April 2025.
Governance structure
| Body | Role | |---|---| | MyDIGITAL Corporation | Programme office, coordinates implementation | | Ministry of Digital | Policy ownership (created 2023) | | National AI Office (NAIO) | AI policy, sectoral consultation, governance | | MDEC | Industry development, MSME digitalisation | | MCMC | Communications and connectivity regulation | | BNM, SC | Financial sector AI guidance | | MOSTI | Research and innovation funding |
The Ministry of Digital, formed in December 2023, consolidated digital-economy policy under a single cabinet portfolio. The National AI Office (NAIO), launched in December 2024, sits within the Ministry of Digital and is the mechanism through which government consults individual sectors before drafting AI policy. It is charged with developing a national AI Code of Ethics, the Malaysia AI Governance Framework, and sectoral guidance for financial services, healthcare, agriculture, and education.
AI Nation 2030
The AI Nation 2030 vision, announced in August 2024, layers explicit AI targets on top of the broader MyDIGITAL goals. Key components include the establishment of a national AI compute capability, sovereign AI talent pipelines through public universities and HRD Corp, and a regulatory environment that balances innovation with consumer protection under the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA). The AI Roadmap published by MOSTI provides a complementary technical framework, identifying priority sectors and the foundational research investments required to support them.
Phase 3 — sectoral transformation
Phase 3 of MyDIGITAL, running from 2026 to 2030, targets sectoral AI deployment. The National AI Office is consulting financial services, health, agriculture, manufacturing, and education sectors to draft sector-specific AI policy. In financial services, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) issued a discussion paper on AI in 2024 and the Securities Commission (SC) has updated its capital-markets technology guidance. In healthcare, the Ministry of Health is piloting AI-assisted diagnostics in MyDoc and selected public hospitals. In agriculture, MARDI and the Department of Agriculture are deploying AI for palm oil yield monitoring and pest detection. In education, the Ministry of Education has begun integrating AI literacy into the curriculum.
References
- Economic Planning Unit, Prime Ministers Department. (2021). Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint. Government of Malaysia.
- Ministry of Digital, Government of Malaysia. (2024). National AI Office Establishment Brief.
- Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI). (2021). National AI Roadmap 2021–2025.
- Bank Negara Malaysia. (2024). Discussion Paper on Artificial Intelligence in the Financial Services Industry. https://www.bnm.gov.my.