KUALA LUMPUR: The government is committed to accelerating Malaysia’s digital transformation by strengthening talent development in technology fields, including artificial intelligence (AI), to ensure the workforce is ready to face the challenges of the digital economy.
Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo noted that the eUsahawan programme organised by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) has trained over 563,000 entrepreneurs since 2015, enabling them to master digital marketing and e-commerce strategies.
"To ensure that Malaysians remain competitive in the digital economy, we have also implemented the MD Workforce Training and Place & Train initiative, which has involved 12,964 local workers in fields such as AI, cloud computing, data science, and animation until December 2024,” he told the Dewan Rakyat today.
He added that as of November 2024, the overall achievement of the Public Sector Digitalisation Strategic Plan 2021-2025 reached 82.15 per cent. Additionally, Gobind announced that the government is implementing AI at Work 2.0, a collaboration with Google Cloud, which allows 445,000 civil servants to use generative AI technology in their daily tasks.
"This initiative aims to improve work efficiency, allowing civil servants to focus on strategic tasks and accelerate the delivery of services to the people,” he said.
As part of efforts to strengthen the country’s AI ecosystem, the government plans to establish an AI Excellence Centre, which will serve as a research, innovation, and training hub for AI, as well as a platform for developing innovative AI solutions, he added.
"To expand digital literacy, the government has also introduced the Digital Citizen Portal, a learning platform offering free technology courses. As of February 2025, more than 1.3 million Malaysians have participated in the AI For Citizens course, while new courses such as Blockchain For Citizens and Quantum Computing For Citizens will be introduced by the end of this year,” he revealed. - Bernama
