KUALA LUMPUR: Digital literacy initiatives such as the #SayaDigital movement play an important role in helping the people, including small traders to overcome challenges brought by the global Covid-19 pandemic.
Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said strengthening and improving digital literacy among the community is also important for the country to realise its digital economy vision.
The effects and consequences unleashed by the pandemic, he said, could also be an impetus for the rural community especially traders to enhance and strengthen skills as well as knowledge in the digital aspect.
"The #SayaDigital initiatives by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) is the continuity of the MyDigital initiative which aims to accelerate the growth of the digitally literate society in the country.
"This initiative which has been implemented since August last year focuses on increasing digital literacy among different socio-economic groups through programmes, seminars and training schemes.
"In addition, several efforts will be introduced with the cooperation of the People's Housing Project (PPR), village development and security committees (JKKK) as well as community internet centres until end of the year with a target to enrol 10,000 participants for the #SayaDigital movement," said Muhyiddin in his speech.
The recording of his speech was played at the launching ceremony of the national-level #SayaDigital movement at PPR in Hiliran Ampang here today.
Communications and Multimedia Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Mohammad Mentek was also present.
Mohammad appeared on behalf of Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.
Also present were MDEC chairman Datuk Dr Rais Hussin Mohamed Ariff and its chief executive officer Surina Shukri.
Muhyiddin said he was informed that several #SayaDigital teams had visited a number of PPRs apart from conducting programmes for the Orang Asli settlement in Bukit Lanjan to increase digital literacy among the community.
"This reflects the commitment by the government to ensure people from all walks of life benefit from the development programmes implemented to prosper the country in a fair and equal manner," he said.
In a press release issued during the ceremony, MDEC said the implementation of the movement is strongly backed by the Prime Minister's Department, Communications and Multimedia Ministry as well as the Rural Development Ministry.
The corporation said this year's #SayaDigital movement focuses on four components namely training young people to become 'Geng #SayaDigital' volunteers, creating awareness through digital literacy activities, conducting digital readiness assessments and providing basic skills training to the community.
"Concurrently, participants who have registered online have been connected to major MDEC programmes such as eUsahawan, PeDAS or Perkhidmatan e- Dagang Setempat, eRezeki, MyDigitalMaker, the Global Online Workforce (GLOW) and eBerkat," the corporation said.