KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia is on the right path towards technological and digital transformation through initiatives to build smart cities and the National Digital Network (Jendela) among others, said international audit firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd (DTTL).
Deloitte Malaysia government and public services leader Kamarul Baharin said the healthy budget of RM1 billion for digital transformation and RM7.4 billion for the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission to increase broadband connectivity would definitely promote a digitally-driven economy.
“We are encouraged by Malaysia’s significant commitments and investments to adopt technological change.
“Coinciding with the global digital wave, governments globally should incorporate new thinking about how it delivers services to citizens,” he said in a statement today.
Kamarul added that governments worldwide are increasingly focused on customer experience as they seek to improve customer satisfaction, efficiency, and mission-effectiveness.
“While governments are more likely to try and graft new technologies onto old methods, improving only the process that delivers services can lead them to deliver the wrong service.
“Therefore, we do not just need new technology in the government, we also need technology to enable new ideas on how services can be delivered to the citizens,” he said.
DTTL highlighted a few key considerations in finding new models of service delivery to better serve citizens' needs and one of them is to overcome mental challenges.
“The biggest challenge in finding new ways of doing business is the preconceived notions about how work needs to be done.
“If leaders want to take advantage of new technologies to meet citizens’ needs in new ways, they need to be able to see new ways of delivering services to the citizens,” he said.
Leaders should overcome technical challenges by treating technologies as interlinked and not disconnected tools because technologies have never existed in isolation, DTTL added.
“Leaders should not think about purchasing just artificial intelligence or only migrating to cloud (services), they must also think about how those technologies interact and what opportunities and what cyber vulnerabilities they create for each other,” Kamarul noted.
Another factor to overcome is regulatory challenges as a government manages risks not just for employees and customers, but for all citizens.
Unlike a private entity, government programmes are often created by statute and they have to take into account legal constraints on what and how services can be delivered to the citizens.
“Most government agencies still have a wide latitude in how to best serve citizens.
“However, in the event that regulation constrains new developments, leaders should advocate for relief that can enable innovation while still protecting citizens,” he said. – Bernama, April 20, 2021
