Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun (pictured), Minister in Prime Minister Department said: “This saving has been achieved by employing in-house ICT consultants. These ICT consulting team members are paid government wages. The difference in cost between employing private sector consultants and in-house government consultants was used in calculating the cost savings.”
Read more: Malaysian government claims US$17m savings from using in-house ICT consultants
The Malaysian Government is doing well in delivering services to citizens in the lower socioeconomic strata who are less digitally connected, even compared to countries with higher income per capita. 86% of its services can be accessed by “disadvantaged and vulnerable groups” - the highest proportion among Southeast Asian governments. It has performed as well as Singapore, whose citizens enjoy income per capita more three times higher than Malaysians.
E-Government
In 2014, it aims to have 80 per cent of government services online and encourage the use of online services such as the myGovernment Portal. In the long run, all public-facing government services will be migrated online with the goal of “zero face-to-face interactions” by 2020, stated the report.
Read more: Malaysia Government prioritises e-government, e-learning and healthcare IT in 2020 vision
According to local media, the State Government is working with CIMB Bank, one of the world’s largest Islamic banks headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, to deploy the country’s first chip-based payment solution called ‘Plug and Pay’.
Read more: Malaysian state government to roll out mobile e-payment
This is because it is both a growth industry and an enabler for accelerated expansion of the country’s economy, the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) in the Prime Minister’s Department said in its 2013 Annual Report of the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP).