Optimism over national digital economy initiative
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians generally have high expectations that the nation’s MyDigital initiative will bring forth diverse opportunities.
Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is set to launch the MyDigital initiative and the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint today, which will provide a clear roadmap of the country’s transformation into a regional digital pulse by 2030.
SME Corporation chairman Datuk Seri Syed Hussien Alhabshee expects the MyDigital initiative to create more jobs for Malaysians, with the setting up of more companies and start-ups.
“Last year 50,000 small and medium enterprises were registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia.
“If one SME can recruit five people, that means jobs for 250,000 people will be created in a year,” he said.
Additionally, a digital economy could also benefit 1.2 million informal business owners in the country. Informal business owners are those who set up stalls beside shoplots, roads and other similar locations.
“They are not registered, hence do not receive any kind of government assistance to empower them as of now,” Syed Hussien said, adding that he has directed his state directors to approach such business owners to adopt ecommerce.
“With this, 1.2 million small businesses can operate efficiently with the help of SME Corp, through the digitalisation process,” he added.
Public Works Department civil engineer and project management consultant Dayalan Rainoo Raj said that to achieve the goals of IR 4.0., it would be prudent to boost the nation’s digital infrastructure.
“Project deliveries can then be carried out more efficiently. With the transition in the right direction, transactions can be carried out regardless of time and place,” said Dayalan.
The MyDigital initiative should enhance the digital skillsets of civil servants and improve delivery services of the Government, he added.
Nur Masitah Razak, a teacher at Pusat Anak Genius Negara (formerly known as Pusat Anak Permata Negara), hopes that Internet connectivity would be extensive irrespective of rural or urban areas.
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, she said that education centres have resorted to virtual teaching methods even for early childhood lessons for children aged between two and four years.
She said there were 88 Pusat Anak Genius Negara centres in 2019, including in Sabah and Sarawak, and each centre now has about 40 children and up to six teachers.
“We conduct our online classes once a week using an online platform. To strengthen teachers’ bonding with the children, we have also used video call each week,” said the mother of three when contacted.
“Sometimes, there will be line connection issues, which cause some of the children to lose concentration thus affecting the learning process.
“If Internet connection is extensive, it will be easier for the children to access online learning, and for teachers, a smooth teaching process and to hand out homework,” said Nur Masitah, who won the award for employee excellence in 2016.
SMK USJ 12 Physics teacher Nurol Aida Md Yusoff hopes that teaching devices would be improved, especially for online teaching.
“When we wanted to teach 200 students at one time, we had to generate three links, which sometimes lagged. This is because the online platform has limitations to teach up to 100 students at one time.
“If we want to have more links for online learning involving more than 200 students at one time, there will be problems as our teaching devices are not compatible,” added Nurol Aida.
“Some of my colleagues who implemented online teaching also have connection issues,” she shared.
Public Bank senior executive John Lim is confident that MyDigital would boost fintech, which in turn would encourage banks to offer more user-friendly related services to customers.
Lim also expects the initiative to change consumer behaviour and businesses to adopt online banking.
“The Government can educate and increase awareness on Internet banking and prevent people from being victims of fraud or scam.
“This can be helpful for them to do any transaction safely at the place of their choice without visiting the bank, even post-pandemic,” he added.