The Public Sector CIO Convex 2019 – Gaining the edge: Navigating the future was held from 8-9 October at the Sime Darby Convention Centre, Kuala Lumpur.
The event saw the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Planning Unit (MAMPU) and OpenGov collaborating for the fourth time on a two-day event which featured a series of case study presentations and panel discussions on several areas of technology.
Digitech and Securetech parallel sessions
The day later broke down into a series of parallel sessions- Digitech and Securetech. Various speakers from across different governments and technology providers presented on a range of topics. Some of these include data protection and cloud management.
Mohit Sagar, Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief at OpenGov Asia presented on behalf of Paul Watters, Professor in Cybersecurity, La Trobe University, Australia on the topic: Securing the cloud using artificial intelligence to achieve business success
Mohit posed the question- Are we going to the cloud? He said that governments want to hold on to their data and not move it to the cloud due to data security concerns. It is a common practice to store data on the private cloud (on-premise).
Mohit stressed that data cannot be all put on one platform. With on-premise sites being used for the internal storage of data, off-premise sites can be used for sharing data with third parties.
He also acknowledged that cloud can potentially go down which emphasises the importance of having back-up plans when putting all data on one platform.
Mohit concluded that it all comes down to the architecture when using cloud. “The cloud environment is here to stay,” he said.
Launch of MAMPU CIO convex
Dato’ Dr. Mazlan Yusoff, Director General of MAMPU gave the opening remarks for the event.
He addressed the CIO convex as an event that is well suited to serve as the marketplace for the exchange of ideas and to deal with digital transformation efforts.
“We ought to think of tomorrow instead of yesterday,” he said. He said that it is important to think about how to navigate the future and of the building blocks needed for it.
Dr. Mazlan said that the first step is to be anticipating how the convergence of human interaction and robots will change things.
He addressed that this is all in an effort to making Industry 4.0. Governments cannot remain stagnant when technology is shaping society. He said that they should position themselves with a growing and emerging environment.
He added that governments should serve in an anticipatory and specialised manner. Efforts should be made for creating high skills in the economy and improving the nation’s ecosystem.
It is important to earn the trust of citizens for digital change while staying technologically literate and relevant. This will create value for people by increasing productivity and reducing operation costs.
Dr. Mazlan also introduced a new initiative- a “My Digital ID” for Malaysian citizens. This will allow for secure access to the Malaysian government portal. He also made a call to action for the enhancement of the open data portal – Data.gov.my
He proceeded on to launch KRISA, a software engineering guidebook for adopting and implementing technologies.
Power Talk- The no-collar worker: Journey into AI and Automation
Marie Phillips, Industry and Strategy Director, Public Sector APAC at INFOR, Australia shared about the benefits of using AI and of how it can help governments.
She shared the various challenges faced by governments for introducing AI into their processes. These include:
- Data – Most organisations have a very rudimentary understanding of their data assets (i.e. the data they hold and the infrastructure that holds that data)
- Skills- AI and data management skills are in short supply
- Emerging- The AI landscape is very complex and continuously evolving
- Risk-averse – In government, there can be less encouragement for employees to take risks
- Process- long wait times from tender response submission to final decision and proposals
Following the challenges, she explained the relevance of AI in governments. AI contributes to public policymaking. It allows for automation, prediction and anticipation of processes/results. It applies as follows:
- Resource Allocation – where admin tasks are mundane
- Large Datasets – too large for employees to effectively manage
- Predictable scenarios – creating logic from historical data
- Procedural – carrying out repetitive tasks where inputs or outputs require a binary answer
- Diverse Data – data that takes various forms (such as video, audio or unstructured) and needs to be summarised regularly
