KUALA LUMPUR: The Digital Ministry is in the midst of developing a centralised database to measure the digital divide in the country.
Its minister Gobind Singh Deo said the Malaysia Digital Inclusivity Index (MyIKD) is being developed as part of efforts to strengthen the government's planning and to monitor digital inclusivity more comprehensively.
“Through MyIKD, the affordability aspect among the population will be specifically assessed, and the findings will be used in the future to help the government design more targeted interventions and continuously monitor the digital divide,” he said during question time in the Dewan Rakyat on Monday (Jan 26).
He was responding to a question by Datuk Dr Ku Abd Rahman Ku Ismail on metrics used to measure the progress of Malaysia’s Digital Economy for 2025–2030 and how the ministry ensures that digitalisation efforts do not exacerbate social inequalities, particularly in terms of affordability and access.
Gobind said the index will allow the government to gauge the efficacy of the technologies rolled out.
“There has to be a system to measure its efficacy. This is why we developed MyIKD. We are looking at a few aspects,” he said.
Accessibility, affordability, ability, relevance as well as readiness and adoption will be the key parameters that will serve as a yardstick for the index, he added.
“If it is ineffective we have to see how we can improve and as we go along we can get feedback from the industry on how we can make improvements and strengthen our efforts to ensure that our country can reap the benefits from technology and artificial intelligence (AI) and progress towards becoming an AI nation in 2030,” he added.
