PUTRAJAYA: THE government will allow greater access to classified data in the near future as part of Malaysia’s digital transformation initiative.
In announcing this yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the public could access more government data to rate the government’s service delivery.
“Central to this is the shift from the current provider-based internal rating to user-based satisfaction rakyat-centric assessment.
“In line with this, we have decided that part of government data will be declassified to make it available to the public,” he said after the 26th MSC Malaysia Implementation Council meeting yesterday.
Najib said the move was part of the administration’s commitment to place the people at the centre of its service delivery.
Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek said only non-sensitive data would be declassified.
Shabery said the data could range from public transport routes to behaviours of people.
Najib said efforts were being made to connect Malaysians, who are at the bottom 40 per cent (B40) of the income pyramid, with domestic and global digital income initiatives via the eRezeki platform.
Najib said the eRezeki project could extend the benefits of the national digital economy to the B40 group.
He said the project involved a series of digital capability programmes, which would train and match 400,000 people in the B40 bracket with micro-tasks from domestic and foreign sources, helping them earn an average additional annual income of RM6,000 by 2020.
“(The) eRezeki will be rolled out across multiple digital work centres, and such centres can be in the form of Urban Transformation Centres, Rural Transformation Centres, community colleges or mosques to impact rural and urban low-income households.”
To fuel growth in the nation’s digital economy, he said it was vital to drive the development and promotion of key technology hubs for the nation’s information and communications technology industry.
In this respect, he said the government had approved several measures.
“They are to position Malaysia as a hub for cloud and content services by creating a data traffic hub. This will be done by leveraging the data centre ecosystem in Cyberjaya, the international data connectivity gateways in Cherating and Mersing, and creating a new cloud content and services cluster in Iskandar.
“In this regard, we will invest in expanding the international data connectivity gateway, and we will consider this as the priority project.”
Najib also said efforts would be taken to turn Malaysia into a regional games and interactive media hub by attracting anchor companies to serve as industry drivers, building local games capacity and capability, and raising global market access through publishing platforms.
He said the government would also endorse the creation of a one-stop coordinating body to spur development of Content Malaysia.
“This will help us to realise the potential of our young people towards monetising their creative talent.”
Content Malaysia, designed for the Malaysian film, TV and content creation industry, aims to foster a conducive ecosystem for the content development community.
It acts as an international tool to further Malaysia’s goals and position the country as the central creative hub of Southeast Asia.