By Ida Nadirah Ibrahim
SHAH ALAM, Nov 17 — Selangor must stay ahead of its regional competitors in order to succeed in digitalisation, says Invest Selangor Bhd chief executive officer Dato’ Hasan Azhari Idris.
He said the state government’s strategies and structures today would have to continuously change and adapt to digital technology advancements as digital transformation presents multiple opportunities for the state.
“(Digitalisation presents) the ability to enhance Selangor’s traditional strengths as Malaysia’s economic powerhouse and one of Asean’s best investment destination
“(It also presents) the ability for the state to address and overcome present challenges despite constraints of resources,” said Hasan Azhari in his opening remarks of the Selangor Asean Business Conference (SABC) Webinar Series 3 titled held virtually today.
He said digitalisation would also enable Selangor to build new sources of comparative advantages.
In today’s webinar session titled “Achieving A Shared Prosperity with Financial Inclusion”, Hasan Azhari said the topic discusses on how technology solutions have positively driven the education and awareness on financial literacy within the community, especially for the Asean region.
He said Financial Technology or Fintech, has the potential to reach out and improve the financial ecosystem as well as financial literacy in both urban and rural communities.
“By adopting to technology advancement, the mobilisation of the initiative to educate communities will also benefit from a strategic collaborative role from authorities and local government to lay in the infrastructure and encouragement.
“In achieving the aspiration in becoming the Smart State in Asean by 2025, the Selangor government fully embraces the role of digital technology solutions by introducing several initiatives for the general public and business communities,” said Hasan Azhari, citing the RM369 million allocation in the Selangor budget for 2021 dedicated to the state’s digitalisation initiatives.
Some of the digitalisation efforts include the Selangor Innovation Fund (with an allocation of RM100 million), Selangor Advance (RM130 million), Selangor Kerjaya (RM58 million), Selangor WiFi and Internet Data, Selangor e-Kitchen, e-Procurement of Micro SMEs, e-Government Approval, and Rakan Digital Selangor.
