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Google has announced two focused initiatives to equip Malaysian youth with future-ready skills focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and enhance public service delivery with the help of cloud-native, AI-driven productivity tools, in alignment with Malaysia’s MADANI Economy Framework. This underscores the company’s commitment towards strengthening Malaysia’s digital competitiveness in collaboration with the Government of Malaysia

The first initiative involves Google and the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) working together to upskill Malaysian youth from diverse backgrounds by providing 161 institutes of higher learning with 500 Google Career Certificate scholarships each.

The second initiative involves equipping 445,000 public officers with Google Workspace tools to boost productivity across the public sector in collaboration with Jabatan Digital Negara (JDN), the government agency in charge of coordinating and implementing national and public sector digitalisation projects under the Ministry of Digital.

These new initiatives are part of the strategic collaboration announced at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Meeting in San Francisco last year, led by Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Prime Minister of Malaysia, and Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Aziz, Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry.

The collaboration is focused on four strategic areas to strengthen the country’s digital competitiveness:

1. Advancing digital infrastructure investments to help companies expand online and overseas.
2. Developing cloud-first policies for the AI economy.
3. Making digital skills more accessible to Malaysians.
4. Accelerating secure and responsible AI adoption across the public and private sectors.

Karan Bhatia, Global Head of Government Affairs and Public Policy at Google, said: “This is a significant step toward creating inclusive growth opportunities for more Malaysians and strengthening the country’s digital advancement—goals that were central to the strategic collaboration we signed with the Government of Malaysia late last year.”

He added: “As governments around the world consider how they can make the most of the AI opportunity, Malaysia is embracing technology as a key driver of national competitiveness and spearheading secure and responsible AI adoption in the public sector. These initiatives have the potential to transform the way services are delivered for the benefit of all Malaysians, while working to equip people with the digital skills they need.”

Google Is Collaborating with MoHE to Make Digital Skills More Accessible to Malaysians

 Malaysia’s fast-growing digital economy is set to account for more than 25% of the country’s total economic output by 2025, with the potential to reach up to USD $70 billion in gross merchandise value by 2030, fuelling a surge in demand for digital skills.

Proactive efforts to expand the accessibility of digital skills are therefore essential for creating inclusive growth opportunities for all Malaysians. In fact, training programs to bridge the digital talent gap have the potential to unlock an additional MYR 87.8 billion in economic value for the country by 2030.

To help uplift the workforce, Google will partner with MoHE to provide 161 public universities, polytechnics, and community colleges in Malaysia with up to 500 Google Career Certificate scholarships each until the end of 2024.

Designed by Google experts, the nine Google Career Certificates span fields like cybersecurity, data analytics, and IT support. They can be completed within three to six months through flexible, self-paced online training, with no prior experience required.

This strategic initiative with MoHE marks a significant expansion of Gemilang, the digital training program launched by Google in 2022 to help more Malaysians acquire digital skills—at no cost—for jobs in high-demand technology fields.

Since its launch, Gemilang has already provided 31,000 Google Career Certificate scholarships to benefit individuals in Malaysia, with 80% of certificate graduates reporting a positive career outcome, such as a new job, promotion, or salary raise within six months of completion.

In addition, Google Cloud has made data management, cybersecurity, and AI skills development training options accessible to working professionals through the Google Cloud Skills Boost program.

This includes courses that are available at no cost, such as the Cloud Digital Leader Learning Path, the Introduction to Generative AI Learning Path, the Preparing for Your Professional Cloud Security Engineer Journey course, and the Preparing for your Professional Data Engineer Journey course, alongside gamified learning experiences via The Arcade.

Regardless of whether they are executive-level, an IT decision-maker, in a non-technical role, or a technical practitioner, learners can seize the opportunity to build and demonstrate their proficiency in in-demand cloud computing and AI skills to their employers.

Dato’ Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir, Minister of Higher Education, said: “Our collaboration with Google will equip Malaysian students of all backgrounds with essential skills to participate in and contribute meaningfully to our digital economy. In-demand skills in cloud computing, data analytics, cybersecurity, and AI, which can be acquired at no cost through the certificate programs offered by Google, will lead to stronger job readiness and a rise in income.”

The Minister further said: “This will also translate to higher job satisfaction for workers and a larger digital talent pool for Malaysia. We appreciate Google’s investments in Gemilang and Google Cloud Skills Boost, and look forward to collaborating on more initiatives to support our workforce.”

 Collaborating with JDN to Empower Public Officers to Improve Public Service Delivery

Organisations in Malaysia have been taking advantage of Google Cloud’s enterprise-grade AI, data analytics, modern infrastructure, security, and collaboration solutions to digitally transform their business and industry.

For example, companies that have adopted Google Workspace reported 15 days of time savings per employee annually due to their ability to seamlessly collaborate on work documents, host more effective meetings, and write better with AI-driven features like Smart Compose and Smart Reply.

To enhance communication and collaboration across government agencies and enable improved public service delivery, JDN will embark on a strategic initiative to deploy Google Workspace for 445,000 public officers.

This significant move would, for instance, help public officers accelerate policy development, budget planning, and public consultations by allowing them to work together on tasks without switching between tools, easily find information across internal document repositories using Google-quality search capabilities, and leverage other embedded AI tools to streamline workflows and facilitate data-driven decision-making.

Built on the industry’s leading cloud-native communication and collaboration platform, Google Workspace brings together the AI-powered applications used and loved by over three billion users—such as Gmail, Chat, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Meet, and more—into a single integrated workspace.

Datuk Haji Rodzi bin Md Saad, Secretary-General, Ministry of Digital, said: “Strong inter-agency coordination is crucial for delivering responsive, high-quality public services that improve the lives of Malaysians. In line with the MADANI Economy Framework, our whole-of-government adoption of Google Workspace’s secure, cloud-based, and AI-powered capabilities will foster seamless real-time information exchange, enabling government agencies to work closer together toward optimal and effective public service delivery.”

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