Next step for Digital Malaysia: The ‘DM354’ roadmap

• ‘354’ for 3 ICT focus areas, 5 sub-sectors and 4 Digital Malaysia communities
• Malaysia to have Big Data Framework by 2014; four pilot projects by 2015

THE Digital Malaysia initiative that aims to transform the nation into a digital economy will shift into its second gear this year with the Digital Malaysia 354 Roadmap (DM354 Roadmap), which will see an emphasis on big data analytics and education, amongst others.
 
The roadmap was approved by Prime Minister Najib Razak last November at the 25th MSC Malaysia Implementation Council Meeting, and finetuned at a recent meeting of the Digital Malaysia steering committee chaired by Ahmad Shabery Cheek, Minister of Communications and Multimedia, according to the Multimedia Development Corp (MDeC).
 
The meeting had focused on the next steps required to ensure the successful implementation of the roadmap, MDeC, the lead agency in charge of Digital Malaysia, said in a statement. The ‘354’ represents three ICT focus areas, five sub-sectors and four Digital Malaysia communities.
 
“We are committed to realising the DM354 Roadmap which will drive the growth of Malaysia’s digital economy by addressing key ICT focus areas and developing action plans to stimulate the country’s’ digital landscape,” said Ahmad Shabery.
 
The DM354 Roadmap is designed to stimulate growth in Malaysia’s digital landscape by enabling three ICT focus areas: Access, Adoption and Use, MDeC said.
 
This eventually will increase accessibility on the Internet with the relevant adoption of digital content and wider usage of digital technology by government, businesses and communities to improve productivity and enhance the quality of life, it added.
 
DM354 will kick off with the ICT services sector and aims to spur the growth of big data analytics adoption by industry. This will also pave way for the greater adoption of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in the country which will give institutions the predictive tools they need to improve learning outcomes for students, MDeC said.
 
This adoption, with the participation of the government and private sectors, will not only reduce costs and raise productivity, but also provide a comprehensive and holistic approach that is needed to grow the big data ecosystem in Malaysia, it added.
 
The Ministry of Communications and Multimedia, with the support of the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (Mampu), will see the development of Malaysia’s Big Data Framework in 2014, while Mampu and MDeC will jointly implement four government-initiated big data analytics pilot projects by 2015.
 
MDeC will roll out the private sector-led project to create 20 big data analytics applications.
 
“The nascent big data analytics segment presents diverse opportunities that require immediate attention,” said MDeC chief executive officer Badlisham Ghazali (pic).
 
“Malaysia has already started in its big data analytics journey and the potential revenue is estimated to be about RM720 billion by 2020.
 
“To date, a total of 96 MSC Malaysia status companies are actively involved in various aspects of big data analytics. Our long term aim is to position Malaysia as a big data analytics hub in South-East Asia,” he said.
 
Big data is creating big job opportunities for IT professionals, including in roles such as data scientist, developers, and administrators, MDeC said.
 
“The DM354 Roadmap will also allow us to develop our nation’s talents into a strong pool of data scientists,” said Ahmad Shabery.
 
The Digital Malaysia aims to increase the digital economy’s contribution to GDP from 13% to 17%; raise Malaysia’s ranking in the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global IT Report (GITR) from the top 28 countries to amongst the top 20 countries amongst 138 economies; and also raise Malaysia’s ranking from top 16 to top 10 amongst 59 economies in the Competitiveness Scoreboard, all by 2020.
 
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