Negotiations have started on a new Digital Trade Agreement (DTA) with Malaysia intended to support growth and make digital trade with the South East Asian country easier, cheaper and more secure through cross‑border data flows.
Other potential benefits could include reducing paperwork and border friction through digital systems, and guaranteeing strong protections for personal data, intellectual property, online consumers and cybersecurity.
Digital trade is the exchange of goods, services and data that is enabled or delivered through digital technologies. In practice, this could include a UK business selling software to an overseas customer through an online platform or providing financial consultancy services remotely across borders.
According to the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), DTAs can provide the benefits of digital trade chapters in Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) while remaining agile, flexible and quick to agree and implement.
Trade Minister Chris Bryant said: “A UK-Malaysia digital trade agreement has the potential to unlock new opportunities for British businesses, support high‑skilled jobs, and ensure our firms can compete and thrive in fast‑growing, tech‑driven markets.”
He described the UK as a world leader in digital trade and highlighted that it has a growing trading relationship with Malaysia, worth £6.4 billion in 2025. In 2023, the UK exported £730 million digitally delivered services to Malaysia.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates that in 2022 exports to Malaysia supported 31,100 UK jobs.
