KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak yesterday urged Malaysians to take advantage of the 1DANA portal to keep abreast of the allocation of government funds.
In a Facebook posting, the prime minister said the people could use the portal to identify and use all forms of government assistance on offer.
“To ensure Malaysians get the latest about government assistance in the form of grants and funding for research, development and commercialisation, I have launched a special portal called 1DANA.”
1DANA.gov.my aims to keep the public informed about the allocation of government funds for the research and development sectors.
The portal contains “smart tools” which can help business owners identify and interact with various funding agencies, industry experts, research, development and commercialisation facilities, and commercialisation opportunities.
In another posting, Najib said he had directed scholarship-providing agencies, such as the Public Service Department, Education Ministry and Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission, to provide more of such facilities to overcome the skill gap of data scientists available in Malaysia.
He added that the initiative would enable Malaysians to train as data scientists for their first degree, Master’s degree and PhD.
Najib said the government would may appoint a chief data scientist to spearhead the nation’s development.
“Advancing the digital economy is a path we must take and a challenge we must enthusiastically embrace in moving the country towards achieving Vision 2020.”