How Jabatan Digital Negara supports Malaysia's digital-first government

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Malaysia is realising its ambition of becoming a digital nation by embracing digitalisation and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) to drive the economy and public service.

With the digital economy contributing 23 per cent to Malaysia's gross domestic product (GDP), the country is committed to continue rolling out digitalisation strategies to further boost the growth.

Jabatan Digital Negara (JDN)'s Director-General, YBhg. Datuk Ts. Dr. Fazidah binti Abu Bakar says that as the leader of public sector transformation in Malaysia, JDN is working to ensure that the country's digitalisation strategy and technology adoption is on track.

Fazidah’s contribution to her nation’s digitalisation’s efforts was recognised by GovInsider at the Festival of Innovation awards, where Fazidah clinched the award for the Digital Leader of the Year.

The award recognises individuals who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in driving digital transformation within their organisations, contributing to improved services and outcomes.

"It's great to see how the role of IT officers and digitalisation are becoming more important in driving the public services. I came from a technical background, not one that managed administration.

“Seeing the JDN leadership come from a technical background is an achievement, not just for me, but for the entire technical IT officers," she says to GovInsider.

Reforming the public service, the digital way

JDN was formed in 2023 as a government agency under the Ministry of Digital with the aim to promote the digital transformation within the government to facilitate the citizens to access public services.

"Our Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, is a visionary focused on improving the economy. JDN's contribution is geared towards ensuring that the activities we undertake are in line with that aspiration," Fazidah says.

The agency was previously known as the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) under the Prime Minister's office, before being rebranded as JDN.

According to Fazidah, the Malaysian government under PM Ibrahim emphasised that technological capabilities would be key to improving the efficiency of public service delivery.

"JDN encourages government agencies to take the opportunity to apply or adopt emerging technologies in every government service," she says.

In addition, she highlights the need for public agencies to work as a united front, using a whole of government approach – as a one-stop shop – to deliver services to citizens, rather than working in silos.

JDN currently oversees the five-year digitalisation strategic plan of each government agency by monitoring processes ranging from budget submissions, projects, to technical evaluations.

"We also provide advisory, technical consultation and input to ensure that there is no duplication in the digitalisation projects," adds Fazidah.

Improving digital talent

According to Fazidah, people aspect plays an equally important role in Malaysia's digital transformation journey.

Good technology alone is not enough. The impact of technology can only be felt through users adopting it, underscoring the importance of educating target users to ensure their readiness and acceptance. JDN is also currently focusing on building digital talent in the government.

"We are ensuring that all government employees especially the ICT officers are technically capable of supporting their organisations in providing digital services," she notes.

The focused areas of digital talent development are around the ability of employees to develop government services on digital platforms, address cybersecurity, and adopt emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and cloud services. 

Establish guidelines for the use of AI

The Malaysian government expressed its commitment to support the use of AI for the economy and society by establishing the National AI Office recently.

Aside from promoting AI adoption, the government found it is imperative to develop guidelines to regulate its use through the Public Sector AI Adoptation Guideline.

The guidelines complement the various policies that the country already has in place, such as the Cybersecurity Act, Public Sector Data Sharing Act, Data Privacy Act, and others.

According to Fazidah, these guidelines are needed to address the uncertainty and potential risks arising from the deployment of AI, particularly with Generative AI (GenAI) and large language models (LLMs).

The guidelines comprise of different sections, ranging from the definitions of AI, potential risks, as well as tools to help agencies assess their levels of readiness when they start adopting AI, she notes.

Become a digital leader

Having led the JDN since December 2023 - prior to which she was the Deputy Director General for ICT at MAMPU - Fazidah will end her government service in June 2025.

Looking back on her current responsibilities, Fazidah says she looks forward to completing her remaining term at JDN. She also hopes that before retiring, she can restructure the JDN so that it can work more effectively and efficiently in providing services to the citizens.

She leaves a message to the younger generation who is passionate about technology to innovate for public good, use tech to solve problems, and be willing to continue to grow.

While mastery of technical knowledge is important, it needs to be accompanied by a good attitude, she says.

"I call it TASK (Think, Attitude, Skill, Knowledge). Even if you have good technical knowledge [and skills], you must have empathy with the users’ problems and think how to solve [for them].”