KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 16): The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) today announced what it termed a major organisational restructuring to reinvent its role as the leader of Malaysia’s digital economy and ensure it benefits the many.

This follows the recent appointment of four "industry trailblazers" to MDEC’s board of directors, it said in a statement, adding that the organisational restructuring will also address the disruption of the new norm and improving its standard of governance.

The four people it recently appointed to its board were: AirAsia Group president (AirAsia Digital) Aireen Omar; AXA Group Asia Market operations general manager Farouk Peter Lee; Artificial Intelligence in Medical Epidemiology co-founder Dr Dhesi Baha; and AHB International Bhd director of legal and administration Jaleeludeen Abu Baker.

The reinvented MDEC will introduce four strategic focus areas — Digital MDEC, Digitally Powered Businesses, Digital Investments, and Digitally Skilled Malaysians — driven by a newly constituted MDEC Operating Council comprising five divisions, it said. These divisions are: Strategy, Adoption (Demand), Industry (Supply), Investment and Brand, and Skills & Jobs.

"Digital MDEC will prioritise strategic national alignment and the complete digitalisation of all MDEC’s processes and services. It will also implement the recommendations from the holistic governance review. Digitally Powered Businesses will drive two specific thrusts: driving digital adoption among businesses and scaling digital industry players. Digital Investments aims to attract investment into the catalytic digital-tech sectors and 4IR technologies. The main thrust of Digitally Skilled Malaysians will be on reskilling, job matching and the sharing (gig) economy," its statement read.

This reinvention is expected to positively impact the digital ecosystem, it said, as MDEC expects to break down silos and drive both synergies and efficiencies across teams.

"This reinvention will enable us to execute more with speed, places us in a better position to support the people, industry, investors and government, and addresses significant lapses in our governance. We are on the path of #Change and there is no looking back. Disruption and change is the new normal. We must advocate the transformative opportunities it offers and reinvent ourselves accordingly to meet the demands of the new digital frontier. Our priority must always be to deliver on the mandate bestowed upon us by the government and the people. The MDEC Operating Council will be laser-focused, agile and collaborative in tackling the significant work in front of us,” said Surina Shukri, CEO of MDEC.