AI Weekly Malaysia

MDEC CEO Anuar Fariz Fadzil will leave when his contract ends on 2 October 2026, having told the board he will not seek renewal and will pursue opportunities outside the organisation. MDEC credits his two-year tenure with securing close to US$44 billion (RM180 billion) in digital investments from more than 1,000 Malaysia Digital (MD) status companies between 2025 and August 2026, which it expects to generate over 42,000 high-value jobs. Chairman Ganesh Kumar Bangah said Anuar drove MDEC's AI Nation 2030 push and repositioned it as the nation's 'specialist digital implementation agency', with the Malaysia Digital 2030 action plan covering AI adoption, investment, industry transformation and talent.

Why: MDEC is the body that grants Malaysia Digital status, so the CEO slot is the one founders and companies apply through for the incentives attached to it. If you are timing an MD status application or building a plan around AI Nation 2030 or the Malaysia Digital 2030 action plan, expect priorities and timelines to be re-set by whoever takes over, and treat the US$44 billion / 42,000-job figure as MDEC's own accounting of secured investments, not realised jobs.

MIDA and OCBC Malaysia (OCBC Bank Malaysia Bhd plus OCBC Al-Amin Bank Bhd) signed an MoU to attract investment from Asean, China, Korea and Taiwan, with the aim of funnelling it into high-value sectors such as advanced manufacturing and renewable energy under NIMP 2030. The deal covers joint market outreach, investment missions, sharing investor leads and market insights, and business-matching between anchor investors and local enterprises including SMEs, with OCBC offering tailored financing via the wider OCBC Group. It was signed by MIDA CEO Sikh Shamsul Ibrahim Sikh Abdul Majid and OCBC Malaysia CEOs Tan Chor Sen and Syed Abdull Aziz Syed Kechik.

Why: This is a channel announcement, not a programme you can apply to today: the text names no funding amounts, eligibility criteria, application process, or timeline for the SME business-matching or the OCBC financing. If you run a Malaysian SME or startup that wants anchor-investor supply-chain work, the practical move is to ask MIDA or OCBC directly which sectors and which SME criteria this covers before treating it as a pipeline - nothing here tells you whether you qualify.