Malaysia’s prime minister loses it with MyDigital ID’s slow progress

Malaysia’s leader has voiced deep frustration with the slow progress in two key national digital initiatives.

This week it was revealed that just over a million people had registered to MyDigital ID. “This has caused me to lose some patience,” Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim told the Ministry of Finance’s monthly assembly. Implementing partner Mimos set a target last year of 10 million registrations in the first three months of 2024.

“These delays reflect negligence. How can we advance towards AI when the basic [digital infrastructure] that should have been established is still unfinished?” Anwar said, at another meeting about the digital economy, as reported by The Edge Malaysia.

The prime minister didn’t hold back: “We need to emerge as a competent nation and lead by example. I believe two years is sufficient to prepare for these initiatives.” Anwar later apologised for his “overreaction” and sharply delivered rebuke.

Communication minister Fahmi Fadzil said the prime minister wants ideas on how to speed up registration to MyDigital ID, and that efforts to get more citizens registered must be doubled. “So MyDigital ID has been given a short period of two weeks from the meeting the other day and a decision will be made on how to increase the registration rate,” Fadzil said, as quoted by The Daily Express.

While Fadzil may feel it’s a short period, it’s also the case that Malaysia’s government has placed strong emphasis on digital transformation and DPI. Yet the roll-out of MyDigital ID is a year behind schedule and with approximately 23 million adults in Malaysia registrations of 1.319 million is clearly very low when the initiative is so fundamental to the country’s digital ambitions.

Meanwhile, the rollout of the second 5G network tripped up over details of a shareholding agreement, which delayed the opening of the tender process for the network. The second 5G network is supposed to complement the existing single 5G wholesale network model – which is provided by DNB (a government-owned telco) – and is intended to bridge the digital divide and deliver improved digital infrastructure to underserved rural areas.

Such areas may include Sabah, Malaysia’s easternmost state in East Malaysia, which is located on the island of Borneo. A recent tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed to push forward digital identity verification and to make financial services more accessible in Sabah.

The three parties were MyDigital ID Sdn Bhd, Sabah Credit Corporation (SCC) and Ezytap Sdn Bhd who agreed to deliver an identity verification system. “The MoU focuses on integrating MyDigital ID’s cutting-edge digital identity system into SCC’s financial service applications, with Ezytap providing the technical expertise to facilitate this integration,” the MyDigital ID company said, as reported by The Daily Express.

“The collaboration aims to simplify how the people of Sabah access SCC’s services by reducing the need for physical documentation, improving onboarding times, and enhancing user convenience,” it went on. “Beyond improving the user experience, the initiative will help reduce fraud risks and bolster trust in digital transactions.”

Article Topics

digital government  |  digital ID  |  digital inclusion  |  digital public infrastructure  |  Malaysia  |  MyDigital ID