A huge boost for e-sports and Malaysian youth

Budget 2022 is still hot off the oven and I am super elated. As the Deputy Youth and Sports Minister, Budget 2022 has hit all the right spots for youth engagement – and in football parlance, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz has scored a hat trick for youth.

First, Tengku Zafrul addressed the number one concern of youth, which is unemployment. Our "Malaysian Family" government has, via Budget 2022, provided incentives to employers to employ graduate apprentices and graduates aged 18 to 30 with a subsidy of RM900 per month for a period of six months, which represents a RM100 top-up from RM800 previously.

To boost internship to create industry ready graduates, Budget 2022 extended tax incentives for the Structured Internship Programme (Program Latihan Industri Berstruktur) until 2025. In addition, students at the Master's Degree, Professional Certificate and Malaysian Skills Certificate (Sijil Kemahiran Malaysia) Level 1 and 2, will also benefit from the tax incentives extension

Second, Budget 2020 dealt with Youth entrepreneurship to help those unemployed to venture into business, thereby boosting micro and small business enterprises in the country. This will go towards helping bumiputeras in business in particular and the bulk of unemployed graduates today are bumiputeras. According to the Statistics Department, the number of unemployed graduates increased by 22.5% (202,400) in 2020 from 165,200 the previous year, and that 70% were bumiputra.

Third, Tengku Zafrul gave a huge boost to e-sports. In congratulating Cheng "NothingToSay" Jin Xiang for finishing runner-up at The International 10 (TI10) tournament in Bucharest, Romania on Oct 18, where Cheng won US$5.2mil (RM21.84mil), Tengku Zafrul announced tax exemptions for cash prizes won at selected e-sports tournaments to further incentivise players. And Budget 2022 has allocated RM20mil for e-sports to develop and support up-and-coming athletes. This includes RM5mil to create a Drone Sports Centre of Excellence.

I had the honour of helping NothingToSay to facilitate his travel to Romania. His success has now made him a Malaysian youth icon and he is ranked No. 3 in Malaysia and No. 87 worldwide. At just 20 years old, he has earned US$1,118,720 (RM4.7mil) from 22 tournaments this year. Last year, he earned US$51,738.67 (RM212,300). This sort of earnings in Malaysia only comes if you are a businessman or a CEO. This is the new economy today where opportunities abound for those first movers. And Tengku Zafrul is right to give e-sports a major boost.

NothingToSay's achievement tells parents that it is okay if your child wants to indulge in e-Sport. There are still potential champions among Malaysia's 12.8 million youths and everyone has an equal chance of making it big in e-Sport. This is the 4IR

Economy profession and it is not to be looked down on, going by NothingToSay's earnings success.

The new e-Sports do not require physique or old economy skill sets. You don't even need a degree or diploma. E-Sports have moved beyond the realm of hobbyists to become an industry. In 2019, it was reported that Malaysians spent RM2.7 billion on gaming. In 2021, the global e-sports market was valued at just over US$1.08 billion (RM4.54 billion), an almost 50% increase from the previous year. Seriously, why didn't I pick up e-sports when I was younger?

As Deputy Youth and Sports Minister, I couldn't be happier with Budget 2022. It has all the ingredients to empower youth. In this respect, I would also like to highlight that MCA played a key role in boosting youth development. Not many know this, but as Chairman of the Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy Research (Insap) which held Budget 2022 stakeholder engagements, I can vouch that Insap prepared and MCA delivered two youth wishes to Tengku Zafrul at MCA's Budget 2022 online engagement with MOF.

First wish. RM200mil for youth entrepreneurship development with the rationale to aid youth in business. This grant proposal is to provide interest-free loans and grants. Here, I happily underline that Budget 2022 had allocated RM150mil worth of financial facilities for youth entrepreneurs without specifying the interest rate.

Why is MCA advocating youth entrepreneurship? Malaysian youth makes up 42.4% of Malaysia's total population. The biggest youth NGO, Majlis Belia Malaysia, has more than 20,000 members from 38 National youth bodies, with three million members. According to the National Registrar of Youth, there are 12,222 registered youth bodies in Malaysia. This is a huge pool of human resources which, if mobilised effectively, delivers exponential growth in economic value to the nation.

MCA's wish list also included a proposed e-wallet voucher of RM600 to be credited into two tranches in the first quarter and second quarter of 2022. With an allocation of RM300mil in Budget 2022, MOF announced the e-Start programme which provides RM150 (one-off basis) credited to youths aged 18 to 20 and full-time students in tertiary education benefiting more than two million youths.

Additionally, Budget 2022 provided an allocation of RM75mil for one-off RM50 credit to e-wallet accounts for youth aged 18 to 20, benefiting 1.5 million youth.

Second wish: RM100mil for youth empowerment to generate activities and programmes nationwide. This is to be given directly to youth associations in the country. For Budget 2022, specifically to cultivate an active lifestyle, an allocation of RM50mil is allocated to implement programmes such as Fit Forever and the National Sports Day.

I am super happy for Malaysian youth looking at Budget 2022 and hope that youth grab all the opportunities afforded in Budget 2022.

Datuk Seri Ti Lian Ker

Chairman, Institute Of Strategic Analysis and Policy Research (Insap)