This past week, OpenGov was invited to participate in INTAN Digital Exploration (IDEX) 2015 event celebrating the government’s journey towards digital transformation, while reminding the public servants of the opportunities provided by advanced technology. The event welcomed over 600 public sector representatives at Malaysian National Institute for Public Administration’s (INTAN) Kuala Lumpur campus.
Key attendees included: Dato’ Dr. Mazlan Yusoff, Director of INTAN, YBhg. Tan Sri Mohamad Zabidi Zainal, Director-General of Public Service Malaysia, and Marsineh Jarmin, Head of Cluster, INTAN.
Each spoke at the event, sharing their view of how Malaysia should transform their digital infrastructure to better the quality of living for citizens.
The Malaysian National Institute for Public Administration (INTAN) is the training arm for government public services. Its mission is to develop competent Public Sector workforce through quality learning. With this, INTAN hosts multiple events throughout the year on each of its 4 campuses.
Marsineh Jarmin and her team coordinated the sessions and events during IDEX 2015. She brings recent experience from Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) into INTAN where she is now fulfilling a leadership role which enables her to make great change across the whole of the public sector.
Mr. YBhg. Tan Sri Mohamad Zabidi Zainal provided the keynote address for IDEX 2015. His remarks acknowledged how far Malaysia has come, and how far it has yet to go in the digital transformation process.
“I hope that participants find this event useful as well as challenging to your own professional development… We organize this conference to focus on the present and future ICT development trends so as to enhance the public sector delivery system,” stated YBhg. Tan Sri Mohamad Zabidi Zainal,
“Internet connected devices are expected to surpass the number of human beings on the planet by the year 2020.”
He then spoke on the knowledge economy, once being at the center stage, is diminishing. Digital Transformation is starting to define the business success. Additionally, it brings new challenges and opportunities for the public sector domain.
“It is imperative for public service to restrategise its human resources capabilities to face this new era, in a quest to provide excellent public service,” stated YBhg. Tan Sri Mohamad Zabidi Zainal.
He stressed that while integrating new technology so as to transform service delivery, agencies must address the areas of government rules, skills and processes, security and privacy, competing for talent, and providing the best government services.
“The Future is Now,” YBhg. Tan Sri Mohamad Zabidi Zainal said to the audience. We will be creating more data in every second, our internet connectivity will improve to provide us with rapid speed, and we will have more devices than we know what to do with.
By addressing the topic of Digital Transformation and Innovation at IDEX 2015, it is hoped that public servants of Malaysia will feed more educated about the benefits of technology and more readily embrace it in their workplace. Malaysia’s journey towards becoming a digital government is not too far off. As the public sector is reminded of technology’s great abilities, they will be less weary to accept these solutions in their respective agencies.