COVID-19 accelerates digital agenda, says Mustapa

He said although the pandemic was a very serious health crisis, it also provided the wonderful unity to move forward to achieve the digital agenda, especially to make the people digitally friendly.

"We have changed the way we do things, we work from home... we do many things online, that is the major push for the government in accelerating digitalisation," he said in his keynote address at the NEC Roland Berger Live Forum with the topic Accelerating Digital ID to Enable Digital Economy in the New Norm, here today.

Hosted by the NEC Corporation, the forum was also participated by NEC Malaysia managing director Chong Kai Wooi, evangelist head of NEC Consulting Walter Lee, chief strategy officer Datuk Fadzli Shah Anuar and Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) head of research and senior research fellow Dr. Shankaran Nambiar.

Among the crucial issues discussed were how IT adoption could attract foreign investors to Malaysia, why digital ID matters in the new norm of digital economy, how digital ID impact Malaysia, how to leverage the power of digital ID, and how to use technology to kick start business.

Additionally, Mustapa said during the COVID-19 crisis, the government faced some challenges where some government agencies did not appear to be digital ready.

"So, these are some lessons that we have learned in moving forward. Of course, we are determined to make sure that Malaysia fully capitalises this changing landscape.

"We hope to be able to get every citizen of Malaysia to be digital ready, we're open for business... We would like to invite investors to invest in Malaysia, we want to collaborate with our partners from overseas, we want to do more to step up the digital agenda.

"Of course, the success of the nation depends a lot on how fast we adopt this new norms," he added.