PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia’s public service needs to make bolder and more progressive moves to improve its ranking in the global competitiveness index, according to Chief Secretary to the Government (KSN) Tan Sri Shamsul Azri Abu Bakar.
He said it was important as Malaysia had fallen seven spots from No.27 last year to No. 34 in this year’s World Competitiveness Ranking by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD).
“This shows that the country’s competitiveness requires a more holistic and agile structural reform,” he said in his address at the KSN Leadership Aspiration Programme here today.
Also present were Communications Ministry secretary-general Datuk Mohamad Fauzi Md Isa and Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) chief executive officer Nur-ul Afida Kamaludin.
Shamsul Azri said the country has great potential in various areas of competitiveness including in the digital field after being ranked 29th out of 64 countries assessed by IMD last year compared to 31st place in 2022, in addition to successfully attracting investment from giant companies such as Amazon Web Services (AWS ) and Google.
He said in the context of the public sector, based on records by the National Digital Department as of last April, the achievement of end-to-end (E2E) services is 68 per cent and he is optimistic that the figure will reach 80 per cent by 2025.
“The same goes for the implementation of government digital projects that use cloud computing services. As of August, 21 projects have been implemented involving 11 ministries...while 168 high-quality open data sets have been provided by ministries and agencies, far surpassing the 25 data sets targeted for this year and next year.
“This shows strong moves taken from the digitisation aspect, including the rapid development of digital infrastructure, as a result of the government’s commitment to continue the digital progress agenda in the country,” he said.
Meanwhile, Shamsul Azri said civil servants need to demonstrate loyalty to the ruling government and adhere to the rules and regulations that have been set to ensure professionalism and reliability of public service.
He said that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s firmness in governance and combating corruption is apt in the current efforts to boost the country’s economic growth.
“In the context of Malaysia MADANI, we all have a great responsibility to implement the policies that have been outlined to build a cleaner, inclusive, fair, and progressive country.
“We may have the best laws, great policies, but if there is no loyalty, integrity, and efficiency among us, these laws and policies will not achieve their goals,” he said.
The Chief Secretary said civil servants are responsible not only for obeying the law but also for ensuring that it is implemented with integrity and transparency.
In that regard, he said it is hoped that the Akademi Kenegaraan Malaysia (AKM) could focus on discussions on the principle of loyalty so that it would continue to be instilled in civil servants.
In view of the upcoming Malaysia Day celebration next week, Shamsul Azri also called on all civil servants to deeply appreciate the values of MALAYSIA that he wants to promote in realising the public service reform agenda.
He said the values were Mesra, Adil, Luhur, Amanah, Yakin, Setia, Islah and Arif, which should be upheld by every civil servant in the country.
“This spirit is not seasonal but must be present in us wherever we are and at any time. Insy-Allah, these MALAYSIA values will be able to drive the implementation of the complete public service reform agenda,” he added.
