Malaysia is a tremendous Asian state, the federal constitutional monarchy that consists of 13 states and 3 federal territories. It became independent within the 20th century, and since that point till 2005, the country has enjoyed smart economic development with average annual GDP growth of around 6.5%. in the early 1980s, Malaysia, erstwhile referred to as an agrarian country, has stirred to industrial development, attracting foreign investors.

Today, Malaysia is a major exporter of agricultural and natural resources. The export of electrical engineering merchandise and products and services of information and communication technologies takes an important place within the country's economy. Besides, the state is a vital center of Islamic banking — about 60th of the population is Muslim. Malaysia is a member of varied trade organizations: World Trade Organization, APEC, ASEAN.

Several facts from the Malaysian economy:

• The country ranks 1st within the world in the production of electronic chips and household air conditioners.

• The service sector provides 59.1% of the state’s gross domestic product, whereas the industrial sector offers 33.5%.

• In 2017, exports from Malaysia amounted to $188.2 bln, imports — $163.4 bln; the largest export partners are Singapore(15.1%), China(12.6%), USA 9.4%).

The significant milestones in the development of the blockchain and crypto business in Malaysia

Malaysia was one among those jurisdictions where regulators determined to choose a “wait-and-see” strategy, despite the statements made at the end of 2017. whereas regulatory decisions thundered around the world in 2018, and jurisdictions struggled to be a lot of lucrative for crypto and ICO projects, Malaysia seemed to ignore this activity. solely in Jan 2019, the regulator came out with the clarifications, however let’s progress step by step.

For the primary time, the authorities paid attention to Bitcoin in 2014. At that point, representatives of the Bank Negara (Central Bank of the country) conducted a series of studies collectively with the central bank of Singapore, eventually announcing that cryptocurrency isn't a legal tender. for some time, the cryptocurrency activity within the country entered the gray zone.

In 2016, Bitcoin once more loomed on the horizon as an answer for storing funds. Malays began to buy and keep cryptocurrency in response to rising inflation and therefore the depreciation of ringgit, the national currency. In general, Malaysia unofficially became referred to as a favorable territory for crypto.

In Sept 2017, after a long silence, the central bank of Malaysia decided to issue guidelines for the business, and in November they claimed to adopt laws on the regulation of cryptocurrencies. However, till the end of the year, nothing happened; the decision was delayed until the start of 2018.

2018 came and nothing happened neither in Jan nor in Feb. In March, the central bank proclaimed the testing of the blockchain technology among 9 banks, however still remained silent on regulatory issues, only sometimes reminding monetary establishments of the KYC / AML requirements. something strange was happening: the business was developing on its own, and therefore the authorities appeared to stand still and silent. thus passed the whole of 2018.

2019 started with the changes

On Jan 14, 2019, Malaysian minister of finance Lim guan ENG created a historic statement on the legalization of digital assets and tokens as securities, and on Jan fifteen, the resolution came into force. The Malaysian Securities Commission recognized ICO as a crowdsourcing method. the decision was unexpected and caused lots of discussion within the crypto community of the country.

“For our Blockchain Community of Malaysia we are so excited because now we can observe ICO projects openly with clear directions. conjointly this call will protect the individuals because before that, the cryptocurrency was in the grey area and other people couldn’t charge under any law if something unhealthy happened to the ICO project,”

— shared his thoughts Effendy ZULKIFLY, the founding father of Crypto valley Asian country and chief executive officer at Blockchain Academy Asia. He conjointly added that the announcement is made so drastically without the clear direction and they still to wait till progress the clear framework from Securities Commission. His colleague, the co-founder of Crypto valley Malaysia, however TZE KOH was also positive regarding the news of wider acceptance of digital assets as a style of monetary products and services, however conjointly said the following: “The authorities should handle carefully so there will not be over-regulation that might kill innovation. the final acceptance are going to be positive as they'll see that the authorities are stepping in to supply a layer of guidance and protection to the business and therefore the public's interest.”

It is worth noting that the punishment is severe for an unofficially organized digital asset exchange or ICO in Malaysia — 10 years of imprisonment and a fine of 10 mln ringgits (approximately $2.4 mln).

Nevertheless, most representatives of the blockchain business are positive regarding the changes. One can solely hope that this step is that the 1st in the right direction. we just need to wish it'd be an honest development of the crypto business in this Asian region, and Malaysia can strengthen its positions within the business.

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