WE have entered the next era of technology: the digital age. With the pace at which technology is rapidly evolving, it continues to revolutionise how we live and how businesses operate.
The full benefits that we can potentially enjoy, however, are yet to be fully leveraged. Regardless, a push towards greater digital adoption is one of the few positives to come out of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Digitalisation, which is the process of leveraging digitisation to improve business processes, has created new trade opportunities for firms to sell more products to bigger markets, resulting in countries diversifying their export baskets.
With digitalisation, local small and medium-sized enterprises can enhance their global competitiveness and create high value added jobs for people.
The economic value of digital trade-enabled benefits to the Malaysian economy, if fully leveraged, is projected to grow to RM222 billion by 2030 from RM31 billion today.
The key to unlocking our full potential in the digital economy is to hasten digitalisation's adoption rate. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, digital technologies have proven to be practical solutions.
Economic activities have increasingly moved online during the movement restriction periods. It is now normal to work from home, attend classes remotely and to use an e-wallet for offline and online shopping.
Even as the majority of sectors were slowly reopened with safety precautions in place, the momentum for businesses to digitalise has begun.
By allowing online purchases and using digital marketing, businesses were able to sustain their operations during the desperate times.
Since then, government assistance through the ePenjana programme and compulsory checkins through the MySejahtera contact-tracing application has also increased familiarity with digital platforms, especially for the older generation.
As digital literacy programmes are still highly required, the pandemic has brought us together in shifting towards greater digitisation.
As a result of the pandemic, Malaysians are more eager than ever to have a national conversation on the future of Internet connectivity due to increasing demands for teleworking and online economic activity.
Here, the government has worked closely with the relevant industry players on supply-side solutions to provide steady Internet connectivity.
The pandemic has called for the government to stay committed to delivering meaningful and inclusive connectivity in Malaysia. To be sure, even before the pandemic, we were already considered a highly digital-networked nation.
Household Internet usage and mobile broadband penetration rates in Malaysia are above the global average. This is possibly due to our affordable mobile broadband rate, as our price per gigabyte of data for mobile broadband is less than 0.3 per cent of every state's median individual monthly income.
In fact, Malaysia is performing well on its trajectory for digital transformation. The National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan has been implemented to expand coverage and improve the quality of fixed and mobile broadband, as well as to lay the foundation for 5G networks by 2023.
Further, the Affordability Drivers Index 2019 highlighted how well suited Malaysia's policies and regulations are to expanding Internet infrastructure and enabling equitable broadband access across social groups.
Having said all that, the pandemic has exposed the digital divide in Malaysia. Most of the digital economy growth is concentrated in urban areas, which could be due to better connectivity in the area.
Teleworking cannot be used to increase productivity in absence of connectivity. It is no longer sufficient just to have basic access to the Internet, but what is needed is high-quality, affordable and stable connections.
There are other digital adoption barriers as well such as cost and security concerns. This raises the consideration that digital inclusion must evolve as technology advances.
The pandemic has shown us that we must break down the barriers inclusively and not only focus on urban areas, as doing so will widen the economic gap between rural and urban people. Among others, this will require social solutions, as well as bottom-up promotions of digital adoption.
By ensuring every member of our community has meaningful Internet connectivity, we can maximise our participation in the digital economy.
From the spirit of #KitaJagaKita, we should pay attention to digital exclusion with the same energy as we would hype the digital boon.
Here, it must be remembered that while we must increasingly adopt digital tools to become a leading nation in the digital economy, this must be coupled with meaningful connectivity to ensure that the benefits of digitalisation are enjoyed by all.
The writer is a researcher at Institute of Strategic & International Studies Malaysia