Malaysia’s National Blockchain Roadmap: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Focus, Goals, and Challenges

Abstract

This Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) study examines Malaysia’s National Blockchain Roadmap 2021-2025, assessing its focus, goals, future development plans, and challenges based on text and context analysis. The study reveals that the roadmap presents a comprehensive strategy aimed at leveraging blockchain technology to drive economic growth, foster innovation, and enhance Malaysia’s competitiveness in the digital age. It emphasizes government adoption, regulatory clarity, industry collaboration, talent development, infrastructure investment, and use case exploration to lay the foundation for Malaysia to emerge as a global leader in blockchain innovation. Through strategic initiatives and partnerships, Malaysia aims to streamline administrative processes, enhance transparency, and optimize resource allocation within public agencies, showcasing its commitment to digital transformation and socioeconomic development. Additionally, the roadmap prioritizes the development of a robust regulatory framework to govern blockchain usage, fostering innovation while ensuring compliance. Industry engagement is underscored with initiatives aimed at catalyzing the development of industry-specific blockchain solutions tailored to address key challenges and opportunities. The roadmap anticipates further development and expansion driven by technological advances, evolving regulatory frameworks, and industry collaboration. Based on the context analysis, the roadmap faces several challenges, including regulatory uncertainty, interoperability issues, resource constraints, lack of trust, intellectual property concerns, and competing priorities. To overcome these challenges, Malaysia needs to advance in technology, regulatory frameworks, industry collaboration, education, talent development, infrastructure investment, and use further case exploration.