THE implementation of the movement control order (MCO) saw the importance of the digitalisation system in the government, mostly in continuing to provide services while ensuring the safety of the people during the pandemic.

       What is MAMPU’s role in ensuring that all government services are moving towards digitalisation?

       Digital government initiatives are ongoing efforts by the government even before the pandemic started.

       Due to Covid-19, the government had to accelerate the digitalisation process to address the needs of the people during the pandemic.

       However, we acknowledge that there are still many services that need to be digitalised.

       As of July 31, 2021, there are 11,169 services in the federal, state and local authority agencies.

       From that number, 6,369 services (57%) are end-to-end (E2E) online government services or fully digital services.

       MAMPU believes there is still room for improvement in our public delivery system, particularly towards digitalisation.

       With the increase in government digital services, the rakyat and the business community can acquire the desired services online, allowing them to sustain their daily businesses in the new normal, says Yusof.

       With that in mind, we have developed the Public Sector Digitalisation Strategic Plan (PSDSP) 2021-2025. It is a blueprint for public sector digitalisation strategy.

       The plan outlines the strategic direction of ICT implementation and public sector digitalisation over five years. It serves as an imperative guide and reference for public sector agencies towards formulating strategic recommendations of digitalisation in their respective agencies.

       Malaysia’s Digital Economy Blueprint (MyDIGITAL) launched by the prime minister on Feb 19, 2021, supports the aspiration of inclusive prosperity based on digital technology.

       It is understood that out of the six clusters, MAMPU is part of the driving force for MyDIGITAL’s Government Cluster led by the Chief Secretary of the Government.

       What is MAMPU’s strategy to ensure that this can be realised?

       MyDIGITAL is an initiative that symbolises the government’s aspiration to transform Malaysia into a high-income nation driven by digitalisation and a regional leader in the digital economy.

       Various initiatives and programmes are planned under MyDIGITAL to improve the government’s delivery system by leveraging digital technology, utilising data intelligence and enhancing E2E online government services.

       Under MyDIGITAL, the government aims to achieve 80% E2E online government services and cashless payment options for ministries and agencies by 2022. In line with the target,

       MAMPU has carried out a six-month pilot project called the Government Delivery System Towards Post Covid-19 Enculturation of New Norms from Nov 9, 2020 to May 9, 2021.

       The project aims to facilitate and expedite the government’s service delivery to the rakyat and, while doing so, reinvigorate the nation’s economic activities.

       This project involves improving the delivery of E2E online services by leveraging digital technology platforms for two frontline agencies – the Immigration Department and the Road Transport Department (JPJ).

       Overall, the results achieved in this pilot project are very encouraging, with a 170.17% increase in the usage of the Immigration Department and JPJ’s E2E services compared to the target of 10%.

       The findings and experience gained from this pilot project will be a catalyst and progressive stimulant for all government agencies to support national digitalisation initiatives. It also helps us to ponder how we could minimise physical presence at the government premises.

       If these public service delivery digitalisation efforts are successful, is the public sector ready to support the high volume of internet usage and the surge in demand?

       Cloud services are essential towards supporting the implementation of more comprehensive, competitive and efficient government services.

       To strengthen the digitalisation of the public services, the government targets 80% utilisation of cloud storage across the public sector by 2022.

       This move enables the public service to utilise digital technologies such as big data, internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve work process efficiency and productivity.

       Furthermore, these services allow the government to provide people-centred services to the rakyat.

       In view of that, we have MyGovCloud@PDSA, which centrally handles cloud hosting services for government agencies. In addition, it aims to foster and expand the usage of cloud computing in Malaysia through its cloud first policy.

       As of July 31, 2021, 202 public sector agencies are using the service involving 478 applications and 3,145 virtual servers.

       Thus, with the increase in government digital services, the rakyat and the business community can acquire the desired services online, allowing them to sustain their daily businesses in the new normal.

       However, there are also challenges to the changes, such as integrating digital technology for efficient and better service delivery and low adoption of digital technology.

       In this regard, the government will continue to intensify publicity and promotion programmes to establish awareness amongst the rakyat, whereby change management programmes will follow suit to guide the rakyat in making a smooth transition to digital government services.

       What are the main obstacles, constraints or essential issues that can hinder digitalising public sector services?

       In implementing digitisation initiatives, there are indeed particular challenges and constraints that the public sector agencies must overcome.

       Among the key challenges are specific complex policies, processes and procedures that need to be improved.

       Aside from that, there are also government departments that are still relying on ageing systems and platforms due to lack of infrastructure and telecommunication network support systems, particularly in rural areas.

       Besides that, some constraints which are commonly experienced by many departments revolve around human resources and financial allocations.

       Despite the call to adapt to the new normal in this pandemic era and physical contacts deemed as high risk, people still prefer to go to government premises for services. This is also one of the challenges to the public sector digitisation agenda.

       Still, these setbacks shall not put a halt to MAMPU’s effort to realise the government digitalisation agenda.

       On the contrary, we see these challenges as opportunities that need to be prioritised while searching for a more holistic solution to provide the rakyat with the best service.

       What is MAMPU’s aspiration in representing the government sector to ensure that the people would benefit from every government initiative and make the public sector more competitive and developed on par with the public administration sectors of other countries in the world?

       For Malaysia, we are on the right path, as seen through our achievement under the United Nations E-Government Survey – in 2020, Malaysia is among seven countries in Asia that ranked in the very high E-Government Development Index group for the first time.

       The survey acknowledged that we have improved our government services, moving from the high to the very high EGDI group, and we are ranked 24 out of 193 countries in the Online Services Index (OSI). Another achievement that we are proud of is that we have two products – MyGovNet and DDMS2.0, declared as champions at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) 2020.

       We do hope that we can go further than this as we set our target to improve our OSI rank from 24 to 22 in 2022.

       We believe we could advance further and we intend to realise the government’s aspirations by promoting good governance.

       For that particular reason, the government is currently focusing resources on increasing accountability and transparency in various aspects of government to government (G2G) services, such as in government policy development, financial management and accounts, risk and disaster management, government information and data management, government digital technology management, human resource management and government administration management.

       As a facilitator, the government focuses on offering digital services to the rakyat (G2C), to the business and industry community (G2B), as well as to the civil servants (G2E).

       Therefore, easy and secure online access to government services through a single portal (malaysia.gov.my) would greatly benefit the rakyat and is pertinent in today’s context.

       They would be able to access government services at the tip of their fingers or at the comfort of their home, thus minimising physical presence at government premises.

       To achieve this objective, MAMPU is currently working closely with other key government agencies to explore the latest integrated digital services in the current pandemic environment through the development and widespread use of the MySejahtera app to monitor and control the Covid-19 outbreak.

       Furthermore, to accommodate civil servants who need to work from home, MAMPU has successfully developed the ingenious SPOT-Me app which features monitoring and reporting facilities at work through flexible hours while working at the office or outside the premises.

       MAMPU aims to widen its spectrum of services towards increasing the efficiency and competitiveness of the government through the implementation of the Malaysian Government Performance Index (MyGPI) initiative.

       This initiative aims to evaluate agencies’ performance in organisational management and digital services through good governance in the hope that it would later translate into increase in productivity by the public sector as a whole and reassure the rakyat of efficient efficient public sector service delivery.