Gobind: Govt eyes propelling local tech firms to become multinationals through GAIN programme

KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 — The government is committed to supporting local technology companies to become multinational corporations through the Global Acceleration and Innovation Network (GAIN) programme administered by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC).

Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo said this was in line with the move towards making Malaysia a leader in the digital economy.

He underscored that the GAIN initiative under MDEC was one of the programmes that the government had put in place to assist Malaysian technology firms to grow and expand their reach both regionally and globally via its four pillars of market access, risk capital, tech refresh and visibility.

Spurred by the success stories of GAIN members, he announced further improvements to the programme when addressing the launch and townhall session at the Macrokiosk Founding Office here today.

In this regard, he said, GAIN would continue to expand its market access to establish business support ecosystems in new countries and locations such as Australia, Taiwan, Japan and the Middle East.

“On top of that, GAIN is committed to organising more mentoring and coaching workshops for its member companies to enable them to raise investment capital as well as prepare for initial public offering (IPO) listings by connecting them to global investors and exposing them to global media,” Gobind said.

Stating that he was personally committed to ensuring the success of the GAIN initiative, Gobind said there were currently about 150 companies under the programme and they were fast becoming regional market leaders in big data, internet of things (IoT), drone, e-commerce, cybersecurity and payments, to name a few.

“I am made to understand that Macrokiosk is one of them and it now operates on a global scale with a presence in 14 countries,” he said.

The minister shared that over the past year, he had asked MDEC to place focus on the programme in order to accelerate the progress of GAIN companies, and that they had really upped the game in their respective fields during that period.

In highlighting GAIN success stories, the minister touched on a local drone company, Aerodyne, which had signed a significant deal in Japan to provide drone-based services for infrastructure management, both within Japan and on behalf of their overseas-based Japanese companies.

Gobind also shone the spotlight on Soft Space, a local company and one of Asia’s leading fintech players, which had recently launched a new technology to make card payments more accessible for smaller businesses, and was now eyeing to make the service available during the Tokyo Olympics next year.

He also spoke about Securemetric, a GAIN member and regional leader which provides cybersecurity solutions, which had a successful listing on the ACE Market in November 2018 and now had a market capitalisation of RM130 million.

Gobind expressed confidence that more companies would be able to benefit through GAIN and contribute to a sustainable digital economy, with diversity and inclusivity at its core.

“We must bear in mind that as we embark on the digital journey, we don’t exclude or leave behind those who are not as fortunate or come from marginalised communities,” he said.

He stressed that it was paramount that they were included in plans and commitments to enable all Malaysians to benefit from the “Kemakmuran Bersama” that could be gained from the digital economy.

Gobind said he was pleased that GAIN participants had adopted a culture of ‘pay it forward’ and had been nurturing and mentoring other startups.

“Many of these companies are also investing in these startups and helping them navigate towards becoming regional players,” he said, adding that this was something the government would like to further encourage.

Gobind pointed out this was because these mentorship activities helped to collectively grow and mature the tech entrepreneur ecosystem in Malaysia itself.

He also urged all companies to keep abreast of the latest technology and constantly innovate to stay ahead of the competition.