Malaysia needs additional 12,000 data scientists: Idris Jusoh

PUTRAJAYA: An additional 12,000 big data scientists are needed within the next five years to spur Malaysia's data-driven economy, said Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh (pix).
He said in 2014, there were 4,000 big data scientists in this country and the government was fully aware of the increase in demand for their services from the commercial and public sectors.
To address the shortage, he said the government had embarked on various initiatives, including establishing big data competency centres in institutions of higher learning nationwide.
"Ultimately, we aspire to compete in data economy on a global scale," he said at the launch of the International Conference on Soft Computing in Data Science 2015 and the 2nd International Conference on Statistics in Science, Business and Engineering 2015 organised by Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), here today.
Idris said the data competency centres were already established in Universiti Utara Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and Politeknik Ibrahim Sultan.
He added big data analytics held enormous potential in various fields, ranging from bio-informatics to medical and health-informatics, food security, climate and intelligent transport systems.
He said it is even more critical for Malaysia to be on board this global trend as it needed the resources and expertise to give it the competitive edge in spurring research, development and innovation. – Bernama