Chief Statistician Uzir Mahidin said this represents a contribution of 23.5% to GDP in 2023 against 22.9% in the preceding year.

“The ICT and e-commerce activities grew at 3.9% compared to 14.3% in the preceding year.

“ICT and e-commerce are composed of gross value added of ICT industry (GVAICT) with the share of 13.8%, and 9.6% from e-commerce in non-ICT industries,” he said in a statement on the Information and Communication Technology Satellite Account (ICTSA) 2023 today.

Uzir said, the GVAICT stood at RM252 billion last year, recording a growth of 3.8% compared to 11.4% in 2022, supported by ICT services, contributing to 41.6%.

“This is followed by ICT manufacturing, ICT trade, and content and media with a share of 38.2%, 14.2% and 6%, respectively,” he added.

Uzir noted that the gross value added of e-commerce amounted to RM248.2 billion in 2023, with slower growth of 3.7% compared to 19.2% in the preceding year.

He said the contribution of e-commerce to GDP was recorded at 13.6%, with the manufacturing sector as the main contributor at 51.8%, followed by the services sector at 45.2%.

In addition, Uzir said the exports of ICT products contributed 34.5% to Malaysia’s exports, valued at RM430.7 billion in 2023, and were dominated by ICT goods with a share of 90.9%.

“The imports of ICT products recorded a contribution of 23.4% to national imports with a value of RM270.7 billion, contributed by ICT goods with a share of 84.3%.

“Overall, the net exports of ICT products recorded a surplus of RM160 billion in 2023,” he noted.

On the labour front, Uzir said employment in the ICT industry increased by 1.6% to 1.24 million persons in 2023, with a contribution of 7.8% to the overall employment in Malaysia.

“Employment was dominated by ICT manufacturing at 35.6%, followed by ICT services and ICT trade with a share of 29.2% and 22.4% respectively,” he added.