MDeC aims to make Malaysia Big Data Analytics hub in Asean

KUALA LUMPUR: The Multimedia Development Corp (MDeC) aims to make Malaysia a Big Data Analytics hub in Asean by 2020.
Its CEO Datuk Yasmin Mahmood (pix), said to achieve this, MDeC would increase the number of data scientists to 1,500 from 80 now.
"Seven local private and public universities are committed to offer data and computer science courses in data and business specialisations from July 2015.
"Data scientists are experts in analysing data to come up with business insights. Hence, it is important to have the right skills to develop the local digital economy and make Malaysia a digital nation.
"We want the institutes to develop the required talents and we are in talks with four more universities that are showing interest in this intiative," she told reporters at the Big Data Week (BDW) 2015 @ Kuala Lumpur here yesterday.
The seven universities are Asia Pacific University, Malaysia Multimedia University, International Islamic University Malaysia, Sunway University, Monash University, Universiti Teknologi Mara and Universiti Teknologi Petronas.
BDW is an initiative that brings together a global community of big data users such as World Bank and retail companies in line with the country's journey to become a data hub in Asean.
Malaysia is the sole big data analytics country in the region and is part of the largest global big data festival participated by 25 cities worldwide. – Bernama