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Good practice Imported

eRezeki & GLOW — Malaysia's Digital Economy Corporation Programme for B40 Gig-Economy Digital Inclusion

Malaysia · Kuala Lumpur · See the Malaysia profile · See the Kuala Lumpur profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 23% 92/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Malaysia's government digital-economy agency MDEC ran eRezeki (2015–2020) and its successor GLOW to give low-income (B40) households digital/gig-economy income access and training; active gig workers using these channels rose from 29,200 in 2016 to over 1 million by 2021.

29,200 (2016) to 1,033,940 (2021)
National active gig workers
RM17.7 million to RM1.384 billion
Aggregate gig earnings (2016-2021)
>10,000
Digital freelancers/gig workers trained via GLOW (by late 2023)
<20%
Gig workers formally registered (2025)
eRezeki & GLOW — Malaysia's Digital Economy Corporation Programme for B40 Gig-Economy Digital Inclusion

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC)
Period
2015–present
Keywords
gig economy, digital inclusion, financial inclusion, low-income households, government digital-economy agency

Context

MDEC launched eRezeki in June 2015 to give B40 (bottom-40%-income) households earnings access through crowdsourcing, gig and sharing-economy platforms, brokering access to 70+ partner platforms paired with digital-skills training.

Activities

When eRezeki wound down at end of 2020, MDEC continued the model through GLOW, which by late 2023 had trained more than 10,000 digital freelancers and gig workers through 80+ nationwide outreach events.

Results

Malaysia's national active-gig-worker count grew from 29,200 in 2016 to 1,033,940 by 2021, with aggregate gig earnings rising from RM17.7 million to RM1.384 billion over the same period, according to MDEC-cited statistics.

Conclusions

A peer-reviewed effectiveness study of eRezeki in Kuala Selangor found it worked for some B40 participants but flagged persistent barriers (digital readiness, ease of use, sustainability), and Malaysia's Social Security Organisation reported in 2025 that fewer than 20% of gig workers were formally registered.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC)

Conditions for success

  • brokered access to 70+ existing gig/sharing-economy platforms rather than building a new marketplace
  • paired platform access with digital-skills training

Common failure modes

  • Kuala Selangor study found persistent digital-readiness and sustainability barriers for some participants
  • under 20% of gig workers formally registered as of 2025

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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