MSIC 2025 Can Enable Govt To Implement Targetted Economic Policies - DOSM

PUTRAJAYA, Oct 28 (Bernama) -- The new industry classification under the Malaysia Standard Industrial Classification (MSIC) 2025 will enable the government to implement more targeted economic policies based on more detailed and up-to-date data.

Chief Statistician of Malaysia Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the move also further strengthens the country's economic structure as the number of industry codes in MSIC 2025 increases by 6.3 per cent to 1,248 industry codes compared to 1,174 codes in MSIC 2008 Version 1.0.

"This increase reflects the expansion of the structure of the country's economic activities and the emergence of new sectors based on technology, innovation, and sustainability.

"With this classification, we can assess the patterns of economic growth, sector performance, wage gaps, and technology adoption in a more granular manner (detailed by sector and area).

"We need to look at all these variables by industry so that policy interventions can be made in a targeted way," he said at a press conference after the launch of the MSIC 2025 book at the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) here today.

MSIC 2025 is the new standard framework for classifying types of economic activities in Malaysia, replacing the MSIC 2008 Version 1.0 classification which has been in use for the past 17 years, and it is the sixth edition of the national economic activity classification standard, first published in 1957.

The updating of MSIC 2025 is also in line with the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC) Revision 5, published by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD).

Mohd Uzir also explained that with a more detailed structure, the government can identify the contributions of new sectors such as content creators, renewable energy, drones, and digital currency to the national economy.

"If previously the data existed but was not separated, now we can know the contribution of new sectors to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) more clearly," he said.

According to Mohd Uzir, this effort also assists government agencies such as SME Corp and the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry in obtaining more accurate data to support the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by sector and area.

Meanwhile, Mohd Uzir said Malaysia is also among the earliest countries to adapt the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) Revision 5 introduced by the United Nations (UN) in 2023, consistent with Malaysia's position at first place globally in the Open Data Inventory (ODIN) for data openness.

"This move allows the national official statistics system to be organised in line with international best practices. MSIC 2025 will be fully utilised for the 2026 Economic Census to ensure that all data released is based on the latest industry classification," he said.

He also announced that the Creative Industry Satellite Account will be published this November to assess the creative sector's contribution to the national economy, following the previous publication of satellite accounts for the sports, tourism, and digital economy sectors.

"Countries like South Korea have made the creative industry an economic catalyst. We also want Malaysia to have official statistics that can support the development of this sector," he said.

MSIC 2025 is published in Malay and English and can be downloaded from the official DOSM portal starting today.

-- BERNAMA