Indonesia and Malaysia are putting a lot of faith in the technological era to break into the sluggish job creation market and offer better job options to those who are struggling to get a job or starting their business, through better internet connections.
In Indonesia, they are working with ride-hailing groups, Grab, Gojek and others for job creation and entrepreneurship development with better connectivity.
Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said this needs to be done to develop broadband infrastructure across the archipelago.
She said in Indonesia, less than 60% of the population have access to the internet. But these figures show there is room for massive growth in several sectors in the country, including the digital economy.
She said the digital economy works on the availability of internet connections, therefore; the country needs to ensure that all parts of Indonesia would be connected through the internet to reap the benefits of digital technology.
She also believes that with better internet connections, people will have options in their lives and can have access to various job opportunities.
5G in Malaysia
In Malaysia, the government is putting emphasis on moving away from the 4G network to the 5G.
Minister of Communications and Multimedia Gobind Singh Deo said the Malaysian 5G National Task Force had outlined a comprehensive plan to deploy 5G in Malaysia through four working groups — Business Case Working, Spectrum Management and Allocation, Infrastructure, and Regulatory.
The ministry had conducted a consultation session in June by inviting other ministries, agencies, and relevant parties from the private sector including the Malaysian Productivity Corporation and SME Corp Malaysia, among others, to identify the needs and challenges in implementing the technology and 5G ecosystem at the government level.
Malaysia is starting nationwide project demonstrations for the 5G service network this month, Gobind Singh said.
He said the demonstrations will be expanded from the current five states used as 5G testbeds. 5G demonstrations were launched in April in Putrajaya and Cyberjaya.
Malaysia deployed a RM21.6 billion national connectivity plan which is expected to be completed in five years and create 20,000 job opportunities for city and rural folk.
The job opportunities will be on construction activities, maintenance and operation of digital infrastructure.
Gobind said, “This would help increase the public’s perception towards the economic activities in the digital industry,” he said, adding that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), was also doing a study on the National Digital ID initiative.”
In it’s Budget 2020, the government illustrated its active encouragement to more local businesses to move rapidly into the technology sphere.
The government is also giving chances to more ride-hailing services, including the introduction of the Gojek motorbike ride-hailing services.
The idea is to enlarge and democratise the opportunities for Malaysians of the lower and middle class to access more business and jobs opportunities.
Grab For Good
Taking a leaf from Grab, which started in 2012 with just 40 taxi drivers in Kuala Lumpur to its rise into a supergiant ride-hailing and food delivery network, it has enabled some nine million micro-entrepreneurs.
The company says that is one in every 70 Southeast Asians who are earning an income through its platform.
Their numbers include people who were jobless prior to signing up with Grab, people with disabilities, and others who wanted a way out of low-paying and labour-intensive jobs, the company said in an event ‘Grab for Good 2025’ social impact programme in Jakarta on Sept 24.
Grab has set three goals for its 2025 social impact programmes and they include improving digital inclusion and digital literacy for three million people in the region; empowering micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses by helping to digitise workflow and processes of five million traditional businesses and small merchants; and training 20,000 students for work in the technology sector through tie-ups with various partners. -/TISG