PETALING JAYA: The national policy on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR4.0) aims to steer socioeconomic transformation through the use of technology, says Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed (pic).

       Launched yesterday, the policy aims to increase the country’s readiness in making use of IR4.0 and transforming Malaysia into a high-income nation through its use.

       The policy supports the country’s other development policies such as Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 (SPV 2030) and the five-year Malaysia Plans.

       Mustapa said that as Malaysia has embarked on a journey towards digitilisation and sustainable development, more effort was needed to ensure the nation was keeping abreast with current trends to stay competitive in the future.

       “The Covid-19 pandemic has brought on numerous challenges and changed the lives of people, with the government, businesses and the people having to adapt to technology and digitilisation,” he said when officiating at the virtual launch ceremony with Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

       Mustafa said IR4.0 is estimated to increase productivity by 30% across all sectors by the year 2030.

       Khairy said that the rapid development of IR4.0 around the world saw a radical paradigm shift in technology involving various sectors and industries, with a need for all to act in line with it.

       “This is because advanced technology will be the transformation that covers a wide spectrum and affects all layers of society,” he said.

       He added that there was a need to embrace IR4.0 to ensure the country remained competitive and managed to face changes in the future.

       He also said the five foundational technologies of the IR4.0 policy include artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, blockchain, cloud computing and big data analytics, as well as advanced materials and technologies.

       The national policy outlines three objectives, four policy thrusts and is supported by 16 strategies to prepare the country to embrace IR4.0 and cope with current and future disruptions of emerging technologies.

       The policy has 10 sectoral focuses, 32 national initiatives, and 60 sectoral initiatives.