As a part of Budget 2024, the Malaysian Government decided to allocate RM30 million to promote Malaysia as a hub for the esports industry.

The budget will be used to encourage international gaming studios and companies to invest in the development of digital products along with local talents.

Malaysian Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, says that this move will help to strengthen Malaysia’s position as a hub for the esports industry.

“To promote Malaysia as a hub for the development of the esports industry, 30 million ringgit has been allocated to encourage international video game companies or studios to invest in Malaysia in the development of their digital products together with local talent.” he said in a statement that was translated from Bahasa Malaysia.

This comes as great news for the esports industry in Malaysia, but with the segment in the Budget 2024 broadcast only being around 10 seconds long, there wasn’t much elaboration given, which makes the specifics of the allocation quite vague.

Budget 2024 aims to drive economic growth through highly anticipated reforms in support of overarching policies, and involves an allocation of RM393.8 billion, with RM303.8 billion for operating expenditure and the remaining RM90 billion for development expenditure, with RM2 billion in contingency savings.

MDEC has also shown their commitment to grow the local games development sector, collaborating with MATRADE to feature 16 Malaysian game development studios at Tokyo Game Show 2023 earlier this year.