Urgent for Malaysia and Sarawak to embrace digital advancements

KUCHING: Malaysia and Sarawak have no choice but to move forward in the digital era, says Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Dr Sim Kui Hian.

He said that biggest challenges of digital age are data, encompassing issues such as maintaining the integrity, integration, security, effective governance and adhering to standardised practices.

“I am very fortunate to have the experience of digital data for cardiac imaging in echo, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), angiogram since 2001 at Sarawak Heart Centre, here. And the big data needs help of artificial intelligence (AI),” he said.

He said this in a post on his social media account after representing the Premier at the recent launching of the Central Database Hub (Padu) by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre.

He added that the application (Padu) is national integrated socioeconomic database that combines data from government departments and agencies.

“It comprises data from 455 public sector institutions in the country, including 70 ministries, departments and agencies, 13 state governments, 83 federal statutory bodies, 134 state statutory bodies and 155 local authorities.

“Next on implementation is on public participation. Hope it can be as successful as MySejahtera – the most successful app in Malaysia during Covid-19 as the compliance due to compulsory scanning as well as the public playing their role and doing their parts willingly in the war against Covid-19,” he said.