KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama): Job opportunities in the field of big data are expected to exceed the country’s target of producing 20,000 data professionals by 2020, said Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) chief executive officer Datuk Yasmin Mahmood.

She said current global competition required each company as well as government agency to apply the technology in their system.

“Data is the new oil, they have no choice, the problem is that they have to get the right people. Nowadays, there are many banks and telco companies that already use data, besides that, we have a lot of start-ups that are very data-driven,” she said.

She said this to reporters after the launching of the 2018 NextBigTech Asia programme by Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Eddin Syazlee Shith here Tuesday (Oct 2).

Yasmin said the target to produce 20,000 data professionals was set by the government about two years ago and MDEC was mandated to make it happen.

“So far, the country has produced about 8,000 data professionals,” she said.

Meanwhile, Eddin Syazlee in his speech called on the companies and start-ups to look into leveraging analytics, big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in businesses in order to stay relevant in the market.

“If businesses do not actively invest in such transformation, they risk losing out from the market,” he added.

About 500 delegates are participating in the two-day NextBigTech Asia programme beginning Tuesday which aimed at gathering experts from various related industries to brief and update the Malaysian market among others on big data and AI. – Bernama