With RISE tech conference, Malaysia aims for place on global digital map

The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation, which led the bid for RISE, says hosting conference will help show off country’s digital bona fides

RISE CEO Paddy Cosgrave said the political situation in Hong Kong did not impact the company’s decision to make the move to Kuala Lumpur

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“Sophia the Robot” sits on stage during a discussion on artificial intelligence at the 2018 RISE Conference in Hong Kong. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:15pm, 8 Dec 2020Updated: 8:15pm, 8 Dec 2020

Malaysia scored a major coup when it beat Hong Kong last week to win the bid to host RISE 2022, an annual tech conference billed as the largest in Asia – and which Malaysia expects will bring a windfall of an estimated 270 million ringgit (US$66.3 million) to the host city, Kuala Lumpur, as well as put the country on the digital map.

The annual Rise Conference brings together chief executives, start-ups and investors, and has been held in Hong Kong over the past five years, with average annual attendance of 16,000 and participants coming from more than 100 countries around the world. Past speakers have included executives from Uber and Alibaba Group.

The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), the lead agency in developing the country’s digital economy and which led the bid for RISE, said Malaysia was well suited to hosting the conference, touting the country as a “pioneer in regional tech development since 1996.”

“We’re home to numerous successful Malaysian tech companies that have gone regional and global, including the second-top drone service provider in the world, as well as the birthplace of Grab, one of the biggest Southeast Asian unicorns,” said MDEC chief executive Surina Shukri, referring to the ubiquitous ride-hailing and food-delivery company.

Malaysia’s digital economy has grown rapidly in recent years, and contributed 19.1 per cent to Malaysia’s GDP in 2019, up from 18 per cent in 2018, Surina said.

Jack Lim, founding president of KL Society, which partnered with the MDEC on bidding for the conference, expects RISE will help contribute to increasing the digital economy to 22 per cent of GDP during the next three years.

Surina said Kuala Lumpur was recognised as one of the top emerging start-up ecosystems in the world in the Global Start-up Ecosystem Report 2020 by Start-up Genome, a San Francisco-based research and policy advisory organisation.

E-commerce alone is a critical part of Malaysia’s digital economy, and has grown rapidly to 8.4 per cent of GDP in 2019, worth 127 billion ringgit, from 7.2 per cent in 2015.