One year into Malaysia’s National 4IR Policy

  • National Robotics Roadmap to lift robotics straight into mainstream usage
  • WEF affiliated Centre to get Fourth Industrial Revolution to support 4IR Policy

MyDigital CEO, Fabian Bigar (left) with guests and Mustapa Mohamed, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Economy), Malaysia at the launch of the 4IR Maker Lab at Petrosains in Kuala Lumpur.

About the National 4IR Policy

The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and disruptive technology, transforming the global economic landscape. On 1 July 2021, the particular Malaysian government released the National 4IR policy to increase the country’s readiness in harnessing the potential of 4IR.

The particular National 4IR plan identifies growth possibilities in key concentrate areas which impact the Rakyat , businesses, and government whilst also addressing plus mitigating potential dangers that may arise because of disruptive technologies.

With a complete of 92 endeavours – 32 nationwide and 60 sectoral – each of the endeavours are under particular clusters chaired by Ministers and the Chief Secretary to the Govt to improve overall efficiency, accountability, and inter-ministry collaboration.

According to Fabian Bigar, Chief Executive Officer of MyDIGITAL Corporation, “While the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint (MDEB) describes Malaysia’s roadmap toward achieving the standing of a high-income country by accelerating digitalisation in all aspects of the particular economy, the 4IR policy is about embracing new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, blockchain not only in our economic activities but also within all aspects of our lives. ”

He notes the National 4IR is an overarching policy that will drives policy coherence and supports the particular delivery of national interests, provides suggestions to address risks through 4IR technology whilst preserving value and culture. “It furthermore aims to create a conducive ecosystem to speed up digitalisation through convergence of technologies, professions and facilitating the particular emergence of new business models, ” Marxist adds.

Furthermore, the Nationwide 4IR policy aims to leverage within the synergy of the actual, biological, and electronic worlds to elevate the particular country’s overall worth based on four policy thrusts. These include equipping the rakyat along with 4IR knowledge plus skill sets, forging a connected country through digital infrastructure development, future-proofing rules to be agile with technological changes, plus accelerating 4IR technologies innovation and re-homing.

“Many will benefit from Malaysia’s 4IR agenda which includes youth through better access to learning strategies and skills-enhancement powered by edutech. Interpersonal enterprises could also make use of 4IR technology to solve socio-economic issues and facilitate digital onboarding to bridge the particular rural-urban digital gap, while businesses may further develop industry-led and sectoral centered 4IR-powered capacity. Even the public sector could gain on the advancement by leveraging on big data to improve public service shipping towards a fit-for-future government, ” he added.

DIGITAL INVESTMENTS

Malaysia has been successful within attracting high value digital investments. Between January and June 2022, the government approved RM51. 07 billion really worth of projects, on the right track to achieving the prospective of RM70 billion dollars in digital opportunities by 2025. Not only do these digital purchases demonstrate the government’s commitment to adopting the digital economy and 4IR, it also signals investors’ self-confidence in Malaysia’s strong fundamentals.  

CATALYTIC PROJECTS

The engagement with all the private sector is vital to accelerate the growth of the electronic economy in Malaysia, just as it is important to influence on emerging technologies to drive innovation. Therefore, the MyDIGITAL Catalytic Projects Task Force was established in order to cultivate public-private partnership.

Catalytic Projects are private sector driven tasks that give focus in order to new technologies such as 5G, AI, blockchain or Internet of Things to create an innovative digital ecosystem. At the same time, the Government takes the particular proactive role because facilitator to further boost the enabling ecosystem, particularly for policy and regulatory reforms reducing across ministries plus agencies and facilitating discussions to debottleneck key challenges.

ROBOTICS

In the last Digital Economy and Fourth Industrial Trend (4IR) Council meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, it was announced that Malaysia will develop a National Robotics Roadmap (NRR).

The particular NRR will be created in an effort to accelerate the particular adoption of robotics technology into popular usage with the goal of ultimately improving the country’s robot density of 55 units for every ten, 000 workers within 2019 to 195 robots for every 10, 000 workers by 2030. In addition to enhanced productivity, the NRR will also have the added benefit of reducing Malaysia’s reliance on international labour and reducing currency outflow.

One year into Malaysia’s National 4IR Policy

WEF-C4IR

Furthermore, Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz announced that Malaysia will be establishing a Centre for the Fourth Commercial Revolution (WEF-C4IR) in support of the 4IR Policy’s vision. The Centre, which is an affiliated centre of the World Economic Forum (WEF) was announced during the WEF Annual Conference in Davos, Swiss.

The particular establishment of WEF-C4IR is the first in Southeast Asia and it spotlights the country’s commitment towards prioritising technology as the key catalyst for financial growth and post-pandemic recovery. As part of a global network of fifteen centres spanning four continents, the WEF-C4IR in Malaysia carries the MyDIGITAL hope to transform Malaysia into a digitally driven high-income nation this is a leader in electronic economy within the region, as well as unlocking Malaysia’s full potential to benefit from the digital economic climate.

With the WEF-C4IR, it is wished that technology adopting will be accelerated to help secure a more equitable, inclusive, and lasting growth for Malaysia as the country changes into the endemic stage.

The future lies in the hands of a digitally savvy, critical thinking next gen that embraces digital skills.

4IR FOR A MORE EQUITABLE FUTURE

Malaysia is accelerating its digital transformation journey, and its ability to leverage 4IR technologies like artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, renewable energies and quantum computing will be one of the leading drivers for the nation’s lasting, resilient and comprehensive economic growth within decades to come.

The National 4IR Policy directs strategic socio-economic alteration through ethical utilization of 4IR technologies toward a balanced, responsible, plus sustainable growth. It is imperative that Malaysians embrace and adjust to digitalisation in order to link the digital separate and collectively take pleasure in an improved standard of living and prosperity.