The adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) will be the key driver in transforming Malaysia into a high-income economy.

Malaysia Digital Economic Corporation (MDEC) chief strategy officer Siva Ramanathan said that the rise of IoT will not only impact the way we live but also the way we make our decisions. He was speaking at the General Electrics Digital Advantage Conference in Kuala Lumpur.

IoT is a network of connected devices with sensors for exchanging data such as vehicles and appliances.

“The number of connected devices, from computers to household appliances and cars, are projected to grow at an annual rate of 25% to 30% by 2020,” said Siva.

IoT has the potential to transform Malaysia’s traditional economy of agriculture and manufacturing and to enable it to move up the value chain, according to Siva.

Siva said that the agriculture industry, especially the palm oil and rubber sectors, could benefit from the automation of labour, the use of drones for observation and the use of sensors to detect wastage and increase efficiency.

“By doing so, Malaysia will then be able to move up in terms of competitiveness,” said Siva.

According to research firm Gartner’s forecast, 6.4 billion connected things will be used worldwide this year alone.

“In the first decade of the 21st century, the number of people connected to the Internet increased from 350 million to more than 2.5 billion,” said Siva.

“With the increasing number of connected devices, there is also an exponential increase in the amount of data generated by the connectivity.”

Siva said mining the data gathered from IoT provides the ability to anticipate what a consumer wants even before the consumer knows it, giving a huge advantage to businesses.

“The ability to mine and analyse this data in a timely manner to make meaningful decisions is going to be key to the survival of organisations,” he said.

However, in order for Malaysia to progress to a high-income economy via IoT, talent will be key.

The infrastructure in education is already being put in place to produce the talents, as coding and computer science elements will be officially part of the new curriculum next year.

“If you don’t have talents, it’s all talk,” said Siva, stressing the need for data scientists and ICT professionals to fuel the transformation process.

“The education mindset has to change as we are already late into the game. If we don’t change now, the young graduates will find themselves unemployable moving forward,” said Siva.’

Source: The Star