The government has come to a decision to appoint the national research and development (R&D) centre, MIMOS Berhad, as the implementing agency for the National Digital Identity programme (Digital ID) and will be providing them with an allocation of RM80 million to carry this out.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said that the Ministry of Finance would channel the allocation to MIMOS next week. In the meantime the Ministry of Home Affairs (KDN) will be expediting the implementation of the programme.
“I have decided that MIMOS will manage the Digital ID for Malaysia. There is an urgent need, and there is an allocation for the purpose (Digital ID) approved by the KDN. I have also received assurance that it can be expedited within three months from now, provided that the government approves the allocation,” he said during an official visit to MIMOS Berhad in Taman Teknologi Malaysia recently.
Anwar had also received and acknowledged free Infineon Technologies AG and Chinese automotive company Geely, which states that there are deficiencies in the highest-level skills among engineers in the country.
According to the prime minister, Infineon has stated that they are proud of the professionalism of their engineers and technology. However, they still believe that there are shortages of the highest-level skills needed that are not readily available among the locals.
In order to rectify this issue, the prime minister said that MIMOS should provide training and develop a curriculum that will be directly managed by the agency or in collaboration with universities and other research centres to provide solutions to resolve this problem.
According to Bernama, the prime minister also hopes to see MIMOS and local universities work to identify specific areas that require additional training to help prepare adequately trained personnel to address shortages and boost training, especially in advanced fields such as digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI).
