KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia possesses the strong fundamentals required to compete in high-value digital services, and the current priority is to accelerate its progress up the value chain through advanced digital talent and more robust data foundations.
So said Raymond Davadass, the newly appointed chair of GBS Malaysia - a chapter of the National Tech Association of Malaysia. He noted that the global business services (GBS) industry is no longer driven by scale alone, but by expertise in automation, analytics, the cloud, and artificial intelligence (AI).
"These capabilities are supported by clear data governance that enables more complex, insight-led work," said Raymond, who is Daythree Digital Bhd chief executive officer.
"To encourage companies to invest, digital transformation must be approached as a multi-phase journey with clear transition plans. Digital adoption is no longer optional; it is a business imperative aligned with Malaysia’s national direction."
Raymond's appointment comes as Malaysia enters a more advanced phase of the GBS Malaysia Strategy 2022–2027, with the sector increasingly focused on productivity and intelligence-led service delivery. Since the strategy’s inception, the sector has expanded rapidly; there are now 749 GBS entities operating in Malaysia.
Total investments have grown 13.5 times, rising from RM0.73 billion in 2021 to RM9.87 billion in 2024. Furthermore, GBS Malaysia has recorded the creation of more than 36,000 new jobs since 2021, underscoring the sector's pivotal role in the national digital economy.
Malaysia remains one of only a handful of nations consistently ranked among the world’s top three global locations for offshore services, according to Kearney’s 2023 Global Services Location Index. This reflects the country's strengths in multilingual talent, digital infrastructure, and service delivery.
GBS Malaysia plays a central role in coordinating this transformation across industry, government, and academia. Its work focuses on strengthening digital talent pipelines and advancing data-driven delivery models to ensure Malaysia remains competitive against regional peers.
Industry benchmarking indicates that countries investing aggressively in digital skills are climbing global rankings quickly. Consequently, GBS Malaysia has highlighted the need for "talent regeneration" and robust data governance to ensure the nation evolves its value proposition beyond mere cost and scale.
GBS Malaysia is expected to work closely with government agencies and education partners to operationalise the priorities of the 2022–2027 strategy. This includes strengthening industry-academia collaboration, supporting the adoption of automation and analytics across service operations, and reinforcing Malaysia’s position as a trusted location for high-value digital services.
Main image: Daythree