Efforts to drive Malaysia’s digital talent development and workforce upskilling have received global recognition.
In the recently released Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2020 (GTCI 2020), a report by INSEAD University, Google and Adecco produced to track and measure talent performances across 88 countries, Malaysia rose from to 26th place from 28th in last year’s ranking. This is the country’s highest-ever ranking.
Malaysia scored strongly in the Enable, Attract, and Vocational and Technical Skills pillars. Besides that, it improved its ranking in the Retain pillar.
Malaysia also ranks 6th globally for Employability, besides placing high in two sub-pillars relating to talent enablement – namely Business and Labour Landscape (13th) and Market Landscape (22nd).
These achievements reinforce the fact that Malaysia is on the right track to develop industry-ready digital talent.
The country must continue to level up our workforce and provide a conducive environment for digital innovation and creativity to thrive, according to the Chief Executive Officer of Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC).
More importantly, businesses now need such talents as entire industries must be digitalised as the global economy explores a new norm for a post-COVID-19 period.
This is where Malaysia’s digital talent development, digital adoption and global growth accelerator programmes for high potential local companies will play a key role in upskilling the nation’s talent to the next level.
It should also be noted that in the new GTCI 2020 ranking, Malaysia is the only country from the Upper-Middle income bracket that is in the top quartile of the report, outperforming high-income countries in the list such as China, South Korea, Spain and Portugal.
The country is working to make digital skills accessible to all Malaysians, and through its Grow with Google umbrella program Malaysia is helping to create economic opportunity for anyone interested to upskill themselves, the Google Malaysia Country Manager stated.
Growth opportunities in the times of COVID-19
According to another article, as governments across the globe work to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 outbreak, businesses are forced to rethink and re-strategise the way they operate.
In response, companies in Malaysia have quickly adopted new operational strategies once the movement control order was introduced.
This is largely due to the nation’s high-speed broadband infrastructure and mobile broadband capabilities that are in place, various robust digital services that are still operating, and the resilience of the local workforce.
The World Health Organisation recently praised Malaysia for its preparedness and response in managing the COVID-19 crisis.
It even selected Malaysia as one of the countries to test the effectiveness of drugs used to treat COVID-19 patients, a testament to the country’s ability to conduct lab work and research.
Digital infrastructure
The Communications and Multimedia Minister stated that reliable and affordable high-speed broadband connectivity is a key catalyst for bringing direct investments into Malaysia’s digital economy.
The Government is committed to ensuring the implementation of the National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan (NFCP) to improve the country’s digital connectivity, with plans to roll out 5G in Q3 2020 still firmly in place. This is despite the economic uncertainties that the global pandemic brought about.
One of the direct beneficiaries of this connectivity initiative is the GBS industry in Malaysia. This has undoubtedly empowered their employees to work from home and allowed the industry to continue to operate.
Under the people-centric economic stimulus package that the Government recently announced in the wake of COVID-19, RM600 million was allocated to provide free Internet data usage to all Malaysians throughout the MCO period.
An additional RM400 million was also invested in improving network coverage and capacity to provide high availability and quality telecommunications networks.
