Growth Hacker

The Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) is a collection of areas in and around Kuala Lumpur which offer attractive incentives to draw in multi-national tech businesses and encourage local entrepreneurship in tech. The initiative has been modeled after Silicon Valley. It is intended to provide first-world knowledge and infrastructure but at developing-nation costs. Malaysia plans to have a knowledge work based society by 2020 when multimedia corridors will crisscross the country.

Companies operating inside the designated MSC zones enjoy the following bill of guarantees from the Malaysian government:

1. Provide a world-class physical and information infrastructure.

2. Allow unrestricted employment of local and foreign knowledge workers.

3. Ensure freedom of ownership by exempting companies with MSC Malaysia Status from local ownership requirements.

4. Give the freedom to source capital globally for MSC Malaysia infrastructure, and the right to borrow funds globally.

5. Provide competitive financial incentives, including no income tax for up to 10 years or an investment tax allowance, and no duties on import of multimedia equipment.

6. Become a regional leader in intellectual property protection and cyberlaws.

7. Ensure no Internet censorship.

8. Provide globally competitive telecommunications tariffs.

9. Tender key MSC Malaysia infrastructure contracts to leading companies willing to use the MSC Malaysia as their regional hub.

10. Provide an effective one-stop agency – the Multimedia Development.

New office buildings are going up all over Kuala Lumpur. If these buildings lie outside the MSC areas of the city, their space might rent at a discount of up to 60% because MSC benefits would technically not be available. I am told this is the case with the building being constructed in the picture below. However, even without the MSC benefits, this building will offer premium, brand-new, office space for cheap when compared to Silicon Valley prices. Plus, it’s right next to a train station.

For more information about the Multimedia Super Corridor visit http://www.msc.com.my/.