KUALA LUMPUR – The adoption of financial technology (fintech) must be enhanced to drive more inclusive economic recovery as financing will be made more accessible to low-income groups as well as micro and small businesses.
Technology Park Malaysia (TPM) chief executive officer Dzuleira Abu Bakar said the future of technology innovation has to be the one that enables better financial inclusion which also has the power to boost economic growth and support industrial innovations, reported Bernama.
She said the important aspect to understand is that the use of fintech in most daily businesses played a pivotal role in financial inclusion as more households are now falling into the B50 category, the new low-income group.
“It is heartening to know that 30 units of mobile bank are expected to be launched in 250 sub-districts of Malaysia that have been identified as having no or inadequate access to basic banking services in a bid to drive up financial inclusion.
“This is all only made possible by the wide use of technology,” she said during a tech talk session at the virtual MyFintech Week 2022 on January 24.
Meanwhile, Dzuleira said Malaysia’s Global Innovation Index score showed a downward trajectory in 2021 as the country was ranked 36 out of 132 countries as compared to 33 in 2020.
“On the brighter side, the report indicated that Malaysia performs better in innovation output than innovation inputs in 2021 and this suggests that we are gradually improving to produce results of innovative activities within the country,” she said.
On another development, Dzuleira said the recent merger between TPM and Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) to form Malaysian Research Accelerator for Technology and Innovation (MRANTI) would help to commercialise innovation to make it more affordable and accessible.
“The merger of the two agencies is done to basically accelerate the technology and commercialisation with the main goal of driving higher return on ideas,” she added.
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