PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s digital economy continued to expand at RM267.7 billion in 2018, contributing 18.5% to the national economy, according to the Department of Statistics.
However, the growth pace moderated to 6.9% year-on-year as compared with the 9.8% recorded in the previous year.
Information and communications technology (ICT) contributed 18.5% to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) comprising gross value added of ICT industry (GVAICT) (12.6%) and e-commerce for non ICT industries (5.9%).
“The growth was driven by the increased of GVAICT to RM182.4 billion registering a growth of 6.1%. ICT services dominated the GVAICT with a share of 43.2% followed by ICT manufacturing 34.1%,” said chief statistician Malaysia Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin in a statement.
He pointed out that the telecommunications services were the main impetus in ICT services, while ICT manufacturing was supported by electronic components & boards, communication equipment and consumer electronics.
Based on annual economic statistics 2018, ICT Services recorded gross output value of RM144.8 billion with the annual growth rate value of 7.8% per annum.
The figure was in line with the rapid growth in gross output, as the value of intermediate input also increased RM8.4 billion thus resulting in a value added of RM74.3 billion.
The telecommunications services’ gross output saw the highest annual growth rate of 9.9%.
Mohd Uzir highlighted that income through e-commerce transactions recorded a value of RM447.8 billion in 2017 against RM398.2 billion in 2015 with an annual growth rate of 6%.
Expenditure on e-commerce transactions recorded a value of RM228.8 billion in 2017 as compared to RM195.1 billion in 2015 with an annual growth rate of 8.3%.
“The main contributor for e-commerce income and expenditure was manufacturing sector at RM287.5 billion and RM179.5 billion respectively,” said Mohd Uzir.
The usage of computer and internet by establishment in 2017 showed that 78.9% used computer while 76.3% used the internet.
Selangor recorded the highest percentage usage of computer and internet with 94.9% and 92.1%, respectively.
The percentage of individuals using computer was 70.5% and the percentage of individuals using the internet was 81.2%.
Meanwhile, Putrajaya recorded the highest percentage of computer & internet usage by individuals and computer & internet access by household with 97.8% and 99.6%, respectively in 2018.
