KUALA LUMPUR, April 13 — The Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) is confident of maintaining investment momentum in the digital economy this year following record-high new investment of RM4.67 billion last year from RM2.9 billion in 2014.
Its chief executive officer, Datuk Yasmin Mahmood, said it was a good year for MDEC (previously known as the Multimedia Development Corporation) last year, with total investments from new and existing Multimedia Supercorridor (MSC) Malaysia companies reaching RM19.8 billion.
She said despite the challenging economic environment, Malaysia was able to attract investments as it was known as a business-friendly nation besides having strengthened its global business services.
“The new focus growth areas like Internet of Things, Cloud and Data Centre, Big Data Analytic (BDA), Security and e-Commerce grew five times last year and the momentum is going to continue,” she told reporters at the launch of the Cloudera BASE (Big Analytic Skills Enablement) initiative here today.
Yasmin said this year is not going to be any more challenging than last year.
On the BASE initiative, she lauded Cloudera commitment for being an undisputed leader in BDA in providing a holistic and implementable programme in talent development framework in Malaysia.
She said globally, industries were facing a shortage of data professionals, and the number of information technology graduates produced each year was not sufficient to cater to the growth.
Malaysia targets 1,500 data scientists by 2020 and is on track to produce about 300 this year, she said, adding that the BASE initiative could help fill the talent drought in the industry.
Cloudera chief architect and the co-creator of Apache Hadoop Dough Cutting said the shortage of skilled data professionals in the industry was not only experienced by Malaysia but also globally.
Malaysia is well on track in the drive to become a BDA regional hub with coordinated efforts from the government and industry players in recognising the importance of BDA and data in driving growth in various industries, he said.
The Cloudera BASE initiative is an industry-led ecosystem designed to groom data professionals, pooling the resources of industry players and academic institutions to equipping more people with the necessary skills required for BDA. — Bernama
