Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) and Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) last week to cooperate on digital transformation, AI ecosystem and smart cities using the 'Zhejiang Model', a digital governance transformation model. MDEC CEO Anuar Fariz Fadzil says the collaboration is strategic to Malaysia's aspiration to become a top digital nation under the MADANI Government.
This collaboration supports MDEC's core mandate to develop a strong digital ecosystem that nurtures future-ready talent, fuels innovation and enables cutting-edge research", Anuar says. It is closely aligned with the government's digital transformation agenda, focusing on key areas like talent development, better data management, AI security and smart cities".
Malaysia has much to learn from the 'Zhejiang Model' of digital governance, which presents a tested system of incorporating digital innovation at every level of society.
Zhejiang University, the century-old educational institution in the Zhejiang province, has earned recognition as a talent-developing institution as well as promoting AI innovation. Ranked 44th in the QS World University Rankings 2024 and 55th in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2024 globally,.
It proudly includes Liang Wenfeng, the creator of DeepSeek whose innovation has revolutionized high-quality AI models into becoming much more affordable and accessible to everyone globally, as one of its alumni. Laing studied his masters at the Zhejiang University College of Information Science & Electronic Engineering, 15 years ago.
In the meantime, MDEC stated that its investments and exports programmes under the Malaysia Digital Initiative have generated strong traction on exports to China.
In 2024, Malaysia Digital companies pledged investments totaling US$2.71 billion (RM11.9 billion) by Chinese companies under the Malaysia Digital programme. Meanwhile, companies under Malaysia Digital exported a total of an estimated US$114.65 million (RM503.4 million) to China. Of the top 5 companies by value are Vitrox Corporation Bhd, Sea Gamer Mall, Pentamaster Corp Bhd, Inari Amerton and Juwai-IQI Holdings, with significant contribution from the semiconductor, gaming and PropTech sectors.
"Everything here is critical in building a successful digital ecosystem. The partnership will involve delving into Zhejiang University's vibrant AI ecosystem, specifically in driving government-university-private sector collaboration as well as equipping digital talent", Anuar added.
The MDEC-Zhejiang University development comes on the heels of the People's Republic of China President, Xi Jinping's successful Malaysia visit last week, where he engaged in enhancing bilateral digital cooperation after having met with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim along with other ministers such as Minister of Digital, Gobind Singh Deo.
