KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 — Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) is undertaking various efforts to provide more interactive digital services and publication materials towards empowering the Malay language, said its director-general Datuk Abang Sallehuddin Abg Shokeran.
He said in tandem with the development in digital technology, as well as its widespread use, especially among the younger generation, DBP needed to evolve so that all its services could be provided according to the current needs of the people.
The move, he said, was apt with the needs of the current situation, including brought by the Covid-19 pandemic, which demanded for more services to be conducted online.
“DBP does not want to provide only reading materials and publications in PDF (portable document format), but we want it to be more interactive.
“For example, (for) children’s reading materials, apart from words, we can include animation, sound and visual that make the reading process more interesting, thus helping to promote the reading culture again even through devices,” he added.
He said this when appearing as a guest on Bernama TV’s “Ruang Bicara” entitled ”Dekad Bahasa Kebangsaan Dalam Kepesatan Dunia Digital’ last night.
To meet the challenge, Abang Sallehuddin said DBP was intensifying training for all its staff and officers in digital technology skills to enable them to provide quality online services and publications.
He said several online programmes organised by DBP, such as language seminars, received good response, and this was used by DBP as a guide in the process of digitalising its services.
“The online participation was very good compared to conventional or face-to-face seminars, as such, we will increase the number of such programmes, as well as focusing on increasing the number of digital publications,” he added.
— Bernama
