KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia now wants to ensure at least 30 per cent of listed companies’ board to be made up of women by 2020, after hitting the 30 per cent target of decision-making roles to be held by women.
“We have met this (decision-making roles) target, both among civil servants and also the top management of listed companies. Next, we aim for at least 30 per cent of boards to be made up of women by 2020,” Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said.
“Progress is being made. At the end of 2017, women accounted for 19.2 per cent of directors of top 100 PLCs (public listed companies) compared with 16.6 per cent in 2016,” Najib said at Invest Malaysia 2018 here today.
He added that commendably, 15 of the top 100 PLCs such as Petronas Gas Bhd, Sime Darby Property Bhd, AMMB Holdings Bhd, Top Glove Corp Bhd and Gamuda Bhd, had exceeded the 30 per cent quota.”
The number of Top 100 listed companies with no women on the board, too, was reduced from 20 in 2016 to only seven by the end of last year.
Najib also said Malaysia’s new Digital Free Trade Zone, the world’s first outside of China, aims to capitalise on the exponential growth of the internet economy and cross-border e-commerce.
Although it only officially started in November 2017, he said over 2000 small medium enterprises (SMEs) had registered to take advantage of the opportunities the platform offers.
He noted that government agencies such as the Malaysia Digital Economy Corp and Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre, which is a one-stop shop to support entrepreneurship, are tasked to catalyse creativity and innovation among businesses.
He urged businesses to transform their human capital and embrace Industry 4.0 concept of smart manufacturing.
“We need to embrace the digital economy, improve on our proficiency in languages including English, and further invest in Malaysia’s hard infrastructure of roads, railways, ports and the like,” he said.
Najib expressed confidence in Malaysia’s tech savvy population was given recognition in 2016 by Thomson Reuters Foundation poll, which ranked the country the 9th best place to be a social entrepreneur in the world.
Malaysia is also second in Asean Digital Evolution Index 2017, fifth in Asia in the Huawei Global Connectivity Index 2017, seventh in Asia in the ICT Development Index 2017, sixth in Asia for the Networked Readiness Index 2016; for the Cloud Readiness Index 2016; and the Asian Digital Transformation Index 2016.