{"id":9142,"date":"2021-04-15T14:20:45","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T06:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=9142"},"modified":"2021-04-15T14:20:47","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T06:20:47","slug":"private-sector-must-embrace-new-technologies-to-accelerate-economic-recovery-pm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=9142","title":{"rendered":"Private sector must embrace new technologies to accelerate economic recovery &#8211; PM"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 &#8212;&nbsp;The private sector must embrace new technologies in order for the country to accelerate its economic recovery, said Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said the COVID-19 pandemic had&nbsp;been an enabler for hastening the adoption of digital solutions, and it had&nbsp;also demonstrated the importance of upgrading and strengthening the&nbsp;technology and infrastructure to ease the process of doing business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis includes reducing our reliance on unskilled labor\u00a0as we move swiftly into a phase of automation and digitalization,\u201d he said in his speech during the dialogue session with industries organized by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry\u00a0here\u00a0today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The prime minister said&nbsp;another silver lining behind the pandemic was the newfound sense of urgency to the digital inclusion agenda, to enable millions to work, learn and connect digitally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe pandemic has made us realise that for us to move forward, we need to break away from normalcy and develop various measures to cushion the impact on our people and our economy. It is no longer business as usual. It is time for new ideas. It is time to innovate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Muhyiddin said the government recently announced a Digital Transformation Roadmap, which contains\u00a0action plans that focus\u00a0on expanding and improving Malaysia&#8217;s digital connectivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-15-at-14.15.21.png\" alt=\"must\" class=\"wp-image-9143\" width=\"504\" height=\"273\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-15-at-14.15.21.png 589w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-15-at-14.15.21-300x162.png 300w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-15-at-14.15.21-185x100.png 185w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-15-at-14.15.21-350x190.png 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 504px) 100vw, 504px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>He said the National Digital Network (JENDELA) action plan, amounting to US$12.7 billion (US$1=RM4.12), would&nbsp;be the platform to achieve these aspirations by accelerating the country&#8217;s digital connectivity through widespread deployment of mobile, fibre and fixed wireless access, and paving the way to 5G.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe must believe it will push the adoption of technology and digital transformation. This is necessary for the country&#8217;s economic trajectory. Malaysia also recognises that IR4.0 (Fourth Industrial Revolution)-based industry would accelerate the growth of our digital economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cUnder IR4.0 technology-aspired initiative, we have introduced Malaysia 5.0 \u2013 a digital transformation&nbsp;agenda for businesses, to address digital accessibility, financial inclusion, productivity and growth through the tools of Industry 4.0 such as fintech, blockchain and artificial intelligence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With Malaysia 5.0, Muhyiddin said&nbsp;the digital economy would&nbsp;be empowered to contribute towards a more sustainable and circular economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the prime minister,&nbsp;central to the&nbsp;economic recovery is the successful rollout of the national vaccination programme, which has now entered its second phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs more and more Malaysians get vaccinated, I am convinced that we are finally on&nbsp;the brink of effectively ending this pandemic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, Muhyiddin said that Bank Negara Malaysia had&nbsp;estimated that the country&#8217;s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would&nbsp;rebound to between&nbsp;6.0 and&nbsp;7.5 per cent this year, with the stable recovery of domestic activities, coupled with improving external demand, serving&nbsp;as the underlying factors fuelling such optimism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As an open economy that was heavily reliant on trade, he said, Malaysia would&nbsp;continue to be a strong supporter of the rules-based multilateral trading system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, he said, the country&nbsp;would&nbsp;continue to engage constructively in regional economic integration initiatives, including through an active pursuit of free trade agreements, which brought&nbsp;tangible benefits to Malaysia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis was the main reason behind our participation in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, which grants preferential access to one-third of the world&#8217;s population, a market worth 29 per cent of the global GDP,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Going forward, the prime minister expressed hope&nbsp;that the business community, as well as private individuals, would&nbsp;continue to assume a central role in managing and curbing the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe must continue to adopt a whole-of-society approach to foster an attitude of self-reliance and a spirit of solidarity. Curbing the pandemic and remedying its adverse consequences are our shared responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHence, I must once again stress that the role of industry is paramount in order to accomplish our common goal of protecting lives and safeguarding livelihoods,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bernama.com\/en\/news.php?id=1952456\">BERNAMA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 &#8212;&nbsp;The private sector must embrace new technologies in order for the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[524],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-15-at-14.15.21.png",589,319,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-15-at-14.15.21-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-15-at-14.15.21-300x162.png",300,162,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-15-at-14.15.21.png",589,319,false],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-15-at-14.15.21.png",589,319,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-15-at-14.15.21.png",589,319,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-15-at-14.15.21.png",589,319,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-15-at-14.15.21.png",589,319,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-15-at-14.15.21.png",589,319,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-15-at-14.15.21.png",589,319,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?cat=524\" rel=\"category\">Nation<\/a>","tag_info":"Nation","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9144,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9142\/revisions\/9144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}