KUALA LUMPUR: With information and communications technology (ICT) no longer just a sector but an all-across enabler of the various industries that make an economy, countries that have prepared well ahead in ICT are better positioned in the transition to new economic frontiers.
Unesco’s Information For All Programme (IFAP) chair Dorothy Gordon pointed out that Malaysia’s early move in developing its ICT sector more than 20 years ago has helped the country see tremendous achievements both in ICT infrastructures and the adoption of technologies in all sectors of the economy.
“Malaysia has been one country that even before this new millennium started putting down forward- looking ideas in terms of how to use technology to stimulate development and create the kind of society it wants.
“Looking on 20 years later, we can see the huge strides that have been achieved not only in terms of basic access but also in terms of how governance in Malaysia has been supported by interesting solutions,” she told Bernama on the sidelines of a meeting recently held here by the working group of IFAP.
Gordon said with the use of ICT in daily operations for just about every area of business, be it the health or education sector, it was imperative for graduates from various fields to be well trained in the new technologies.
In hospitals, for instance, a lot of the processes from medical records to research on diseases or even understanding an epidemic are dependent on technology, and hence future health professionals must be trained in these new technologies, she stressed.
With big data used all over the world and by governments in many areas such as contracts and procurements, staff would need the skills to understand and use the new and related technologies, she said.
Gordon also said she was excited with the work being done in Malaysia to create new jobs and new technologies and to build an ecosystem of Malaysian companies that would support the move into the new economies.
An August report released by the US Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration at export.gov, citing Gartner, Inc, said Malaysia’s expenditure on technology products and services was projected to reach US$15.5 billion (RM64.87 billion) in 2019, an increase of 4.6% from 2018.
As envisioned by the Malaysian government, the key digital areas to drive the ICT sector will be cloud, Internet of things, data analytics, cybersecurity, data centre, e-commerce and artificial intelligence, which will drive the development of Industry 4.0 and Smart City development. — Bernama
