Murugason Thangaratnam, CEO of cybersecurity company NovemCS, said Fahmi’s first battle is to ensure “legacy people” in the government change their mindset towards digital transformation so they truly embrace it.
“Technology is just a tool or enabler. It’s the people and the process that need to work hand-in-hand to maximise its efficiency.
“Fahmi needs to get the message across to the ‘legacy people’ in government that the biggest issue is mindset transformation,” Murugason told FMT.
He said being vocal and in tune with expectations and threats in the digital world made Fahmi the right person for the job.
Vicks Kanagasingam, CEO of digital solutions company Censof Digital, welcomed Fahmi’s appointment, and hoped that more policies could be put in place to bridge the digital divide and encourage industries to adapt to smart solutions introduced in the 4th Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0).
He urged the digital communications ministry to encourage collaboration among network operators, tech players and companies to deploy 5G-based solutions in key industries to make them more efficient.
“This should be done particularly for the medical, manufacturing and transportation sectors,” he said, adding that 5G would also enable Malaysia to develop smart buildings and smart cities.
For consumers, Vicks said the focus should be on strengthening 4G connectivity nationwide over providing 5G coverage as 4G was more than sufficient for the typical consumer.
“5G is very much designed for business-to-business solutions and based on area of operation. Therefore, it is not necessary to waste money at this time to have nationwide coverage, and it is wiser to look into consumer 5G from 2026 onwards,” he said.
He suggested a digital and cybersecurity assessment programme to assess the level of awareness on all matters digital.
He also hoped that Fahmi would consider creating a digital exchange platform for stakeholders to collaborate and co-create digital solutions to address some of the nation’s pressing matters.
“Get the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) to spearhead this programme, which enables enterprises, government agencies, educational institutions and tech-startups to collaborate and co-create digital solutions to address the nation’s pain points such as food security, healthcare and ageing population, and climate change,” he said.