KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 14 — Malaysia needs to catch up in technology infrastructure by building up its talent pool through education, said Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo.
Gobind said infrastructure has no value if people do not know how to use it.
“We must be brave enough to acknowledge the fact that we’re living in a very different time from the past, (as) the speed that which we’re heading to the next level is a lot faster than you think,” he told reporters after the ADA Centre of Excellence launch here today.
“I think it (technology infrastructure) is a big challenge because it is not a question of choice. This is something you have to think about from the government’s perspective, on how to regulate this, as it changes so fast,” he said.
Gobind said as the first step, Malaysians have to acknowledge the technological challenges.
“Once we’re able to acknowledge this, we’ll be able to revise our priorities and look at areas in which we will have to spend more now and also recognise the need for us to invest in talent.
“We’re looking at different mechanisms on how we can teach using different kinds of education platforms as we already have schools teaching computer programming and artificial intelligence that have no lecturers or teachers; it’s all computer-based,” said Gobind.
Malaysia may need different ideas that will help catapult itself from the past into the future, he said.
“As far as I’m concerned, the government has to push ahead with that (allocation for education) because we’re responsible for making sure that our country and people are ready for the challenges ahead,” he said.
He noted that this is a task for everyone—not just the responsibility of the government, but also the private sector and every single person with a smart gadget.
“Malaysians have so much potential and have so much to gain. Helping them and guiding them on how to do with it, and build the interest and improve their lives with it, is a joint effort,” said Gobind.
Earlier, ADA, a digital marketing agency under Axiata Group, launched a centre of excellence that integrates data, insights, media and content to deliver business outcomes.
Its chief executive officer Srinivas Gattamneni said ADA (which stands for analytics, data, advertising) has invested RM60 million in data science platform over the past few years and is looking at investing RM120 million more over the next few years.
He said the upcoming investment will go into big data, automation platforms and machinery models that create insights for clients.
ADA also plans to make inroads into Vietnam and Myanmar by mid-2020, and is currently studying the market potentials, he added. — Bernama
