Malaysia is investing heavily into its tech landscape

If you're living in Malaysia, your government is improving your tech infrastructure a whole lot in 2020.

Malaysia is recently tabled its budget for 2020. It appears the country plans to seriously improve its tech landscape as well as develop a 5G ecosystem for the nation.

Setting up a nationwide fibre network.

Although Malaysia has had fibre networks since 2010, it has still not connected rural areas and even some modern townships. These citizens are left using either copper wires or 4G networks as their only source of connecting to the internet.

During the budget tabulation, Malaysia finance minister Lim Guan Eng said that the government and private sectors will pull together a fund of RM21.6 billion to implement a fibre network for the nation under the National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan (NFCP).

Improving connectivity and developing digital infrastructures.

To further improve the connectivity in rural Malaysia, the government also announced that they will spend RM250 million to improve the connectivity in these areas via satellite.

This is especially important in East Malaysia which consists of Sabah and Sarawak. These two states have had connectivity issues for a long time now and don't have access to the speeds that West Malaysia gets.

While the budget tabulation has a strong focus on rural areas, the Malaysian government is spending RM250 million to developing a new digital infrastructure of industrial parks and high impact areas.

As the world is moving to 5G soon, Malaysia doesn't want to be left behind. In the tabulation, the government has set aside RM50 million for a grant to develop a 5G ecosystem for the nation.

investing a larger amount into esports.

In 2019's budget tabulation, the Malaysian government said that they will be allocating RM10 million to the development of esports in the country. At the same time, gaming peripheral company Razer also said they will add on another RM10 million for the cause.

This time, the government has announced that it will be raising that amount to RM20 million. A very smart move in our opinion as esports is booming in Southeast Asia. Now we'll just have to wait and see if Razer has a reply once again.