Malaysia must digitalise quickly to secure its future prosperity, says Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in an email interview on the just-launched MyDigital blueprint. He explains that because there is a need to move fast, the government has decided to build the high-speed 5G connectivity network, instead of leaving it to the telcos.
The Edge: With the launch of the MyDIGITAL blueprint, how important is the digital economy in the overall planning of the government’s economic policy from now? Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin: The short answer is that it’s absolutely fundamental. First of all, I think one of the key learnings that the world has collectively taken from the pandemic that has gripped us for over a year is that technology has become far more essential than we ever thought it was. Prior to the pandemic, we all understood that technology is a vital sector for growth and development, but the pandemic has shown that it is not a mere tool for commerce, or lifestyle … rather, it is evidently the lifeline for communities faced with hardship and difficulty.