Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said the government is considering to appoint a chief data scientist in view of the rapid deployment of MSC Malaysia and the digital sector in the country.

He said the recommendation would be made to the cabinet for a possible appointment very soon.

"Advancing the Malaysian digital economy is a path we must take and a challenge (we) must exuberantly embrace in moving the country rapidly towards achieving Vision 2020," he said in his closing remark at the 26th MSC Malaysia Implementation Council meeting in Putrajaya today.

MSC Malaysia is the national information and communications technology (ICT) initiative designed to attract world-class technology companies while grooming the local ICT industry.

In order to overcome the skill gap in term of data scientist available in the country, Najib said the government had made the decision to direct agencies such as Public Service Department (JPA), the Education Ministry, and the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to provide the scholarship.

"It will enable Malaysians to be trained as data scientists at the first degree, Masters and PhD (levels), and this will be done immediately because we want to scale up to overcome the skill gap," he said.

Najib also announced Malaysia would be hosting the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) in 2020, to be co-organised by MDeC and PIKOM.

The selection of the host was announced at the WCIT 2014 in Guadalajara, Mexico recently.

This will be the second time Malaysia has been given the honour to host the WCIT, after succesfully hosting the 16th series in 2008 in Kuala Lumpur.

- Bernama


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