THE Covid-19 pandemic served as a big push towards accelerating the digital agenda in the country, said Minister in Prime Minister’s Department Mustapa Mohamed. 

“Covid-19 has left a permanent scar on the world and Malaysia is no exception, but it has changed the way we do things.

“More and more people have gone on to e-commerce, buying food online, e-hailing, going cashless (and) e-learning, these are some of the initiatives that came out of it,” the minister in charge of economy said in a webinar titled Accelerating Digital ID: To Enable Digital Economy in the New Norm.

He said the health crisis has provided Malaysia with an opportunity to move the digital agenda forward. 

While the private sector has been doing a lot in the digital sphere, Mustapa said the government has to take the lead, adding that there were some challenges identified while handling the pandemic.  

“Some challenges have been exposed during this Covid-19 period where some branches of the government did not appear to be digital-ready,” he said. 

“These are some lessons we have learnt and moving forward we are determined to make sure that Malaysia fully capitalises on these landscape changes,” he said while adding that the goal is to make every citizen digital-ready. 

However, he said success of the agenda will depend on how fast the country adapts to the new normal. 

“In recent weeks, we have been talking a lot about training and re-skilling. We want to make Malaysia digital friendly,” he said. 

Mustapa said the country is open for business and would like to invite investors to invest and collaborate with international partners.  

Touching on the recently announced RM35 billion Penjana package, Mustapa said digital agenda is in the forefront and is among the three focus areas of the stimulus package.  

He said there will be a lot of focus on re-skilling and upskilling small and medium enterprises and ensuring there is access to broadband and infrastructure in the rural areas.  

He added that some students in rural areas have been left behind in the e-learning process while some businesses too, especially in the informal sector have yet to adopt e-commerce. – June 15, 2020.