Bank Negara will lead e-payment promotion efforts

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said the decision was made during the third meeting of the National Digital Economy and Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) Council chaired by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin online today.

"In 2020, e-payment transactions per capita was 170 and is expected to increase to 400 by 2022. This is due to measures to increase awareness and infrastructure convenience that are being implemented.

"The Cashless Day campaign will be held while the payment system with applications at the petrol kiosk terminals will be expanded. This initiative is in line with the intention to create cashless transactions for all government services by 2022," he said in a statement today.

Mustapa said the Prime Minister in his opening remarks emphasised the importance of using a whole-of-nation approach to accelerate the digitalisation and technology exploration agenda as contained in the Malaysian Digital Economy Blueprint and the National 4IR Policy.

"This approach requires close cooperation between the government, industry and the people to move simultaneously and complement each other to achieve common prosperity.

"The agility of digital transformation as a whole as well as the creation and adoption of technology can be a catalyst for the country's economic recovery," he said.

Also at the meeting, Mustapa said, the MyDIGITAL Rules and Regulations Working Group had proposed the enactment of new laws and amended some existing rules to create a conducive environment in assisting the development of digitisation.

"It includes public data sharing procedures to support the operation of various digital applications and help the government make accurate decisions based on data analytics," he said.

He said the proposal had been agreed in principle and the implications study would be carried out by the Government Cluster led by the Chief Secretary to the Government.

"Among the other initiatives given attention is the introduction of the National Digital Identity and Digital Signature," he added.

Mustapa said the meeting also took note of the coordination of all strategies and initiatives conducted by the Strategic Change Management Office (SCMO) under the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) to harmonise the implementation of three action plans related to the country's digital development, namely the Malaysian Digital Economy Framework, the National 4IR Policy and the 12th Malaysia Plan.