Amazon was founded in 1994, Google in 1998, Facebook in 2004, what does it tell you? It has been around 20 years since the Internet become popular, isn't it a crime if you haven't started…
Do you want to generate consistent leads for your B2B business? Check out this digital marketing blueprint for B2B businesses and win in your industry! Learn More >>
Improved policies for digital inclusion and governance are needed to further Malaysia’s digital transformation journey, according to Khazanah Research Institute’s (KRI) latest book, #NetworkedNation: Navigating Challenges, Realising Opportunities of Digital Transformation, released on its website recently.
This book is a revised compilation of KRI’s published papers on digital policy issues from September 2020 to April 2021. Its eight chapters delve into pressing issues surrounding digital transformation, including digital inclusion, mobile broadband quality, platform workers, digitalisation among firms, data access and privacy, misinformation and artificial intelligence.
Getting everyone up to speed
The book shows how digital inclusion is a moving policy target that evolves as technologies evolve. The goal of digital inclusion is to ensure that all individuals and communities, including the most disadvantaged, have meaningful access to and use of digital technologies. This means expanding the conversation around the digital divide beyond access and affordability to digital skills and meaningful internet connectivity and use.
Research presented in the book shows that Malaysia is a highly digitally networked nation, with 90% of households using the internet, mostly through mobile broadband plans on smartphones. However, mobile broadband quality as experienced by internet users is shown to be lower than that reported by service providers, even in urban areas with better developed infrastructure.
Internet usage trends show the digital generation gap closing, as internet users aged 50 and above increase from 4.2% to 16.0% between 2012 and 2018. On the other hand, the digital gender gap is widening, with the proportion of internet users who are women decreasing from 43.6% to 41.0% between 2012 and 2018.
KRI’s research further confirms that the most popular online activities among Malaysians are communication and social media, but online activities related to work and study remain relatively low despite the increased dependence on internet connectivity during the Covid-19 pandemic. KRI’s analysis of platform workers verifies that job-seeking activity increases when job seekers have improved digital access and digital skills.
The book further highlights that the digital divide in terms of digital skills and meaningful connectivity occurs not just at the household level, but also at the firm level, with larger firms being able to benefit more from digital tools while smaller firms with limited funds and technological knowledge lag behind.
Future-proofing a digital society
The success of a digital Malaysia depends not only on everyone benefiting from digital technologies, but also on good digital governance, beginning with data. KRI’s book underscores the value of making government data open by default while addressing the need to regulate corporations’ collection and use of personal data, including improving cybersecurity. Malaysia’s open government data level lags behind regional and developmental peers and has not improved significantly over the years. Meanwhile, corporate data collection of sensitive and detailed personal information is largely unregulated.
The book also addresses the challenge of evaluating information online, particularly information overload on social media. KRI’s research delves into the difficulties of identifying and classifying misinformation. Initial findings suggest that while computational tools can help people identify misinformation, a better solution to the problem of misinformation includes greater transparency and fact-checking, adding further value to open government data.
The use of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) is on the rise in Malaysia. KRI’s book explores the challenges and concerns of implementing these technologies in the context of their use in the courts of Sabah and Sarawak and finds that a human hand is still needed to steer the ship. Responsible AI development includes having an ethical regulatory framework and ongoing consultations with all parties involved.
Malaysia’s digital transformation requires all-of-society digital policies
The book makes it clear that digital transformation is an all-of-society process that needs to include social well-being and human rights as well as economic development and growth. Having a digital society mindset involves thinking about development and design not just for efficiency but also for inclusivity. This society-first policy framework recognises that the challenges facing a digital society are not to be solved with just technical solutions but also with social solutions. Thus, inclusive and future-proof public policies are key to Malaysia’s digital transformation.
The book offers various topic-specific policy recommendations towards this goal, underscored by the following three principles:
- increasing cooperation across key institutions and engage with public-interest advocates towards the goal of inclusivity,
- establishing an overarching framework for digital policy to ensure society-wide interoperability towards the goal of good governance, and
- improving public education and digital literacy at all levels to facilitate Malaysia’s digital transformation.
#NetworkedNation: Navigating Challenges, Realising Opportunities of Digital Transformation can be downloaded here.
