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The introduction at its website, ai.gov.my, is interesting: “AI untuk Rakyat” is a self-learning online programme designed to raise public awareness about artificial intelligence (AI).
“It aims to demystify AI for people from all walks of life – a student, a stay-at-home parent, a professional in any field, a senior citizen – basically, anyone interested in getting acquainted with it and wanting to build a ‘Digital First Mindset’.”
If all goes well, the portal could indeed help to address the country’s growing digital divide as those with access to the digital world pull away from those who don’t have the means to benefit from it.
Padu is entirely designed and maintained by the government to ease fears of our data being misused in the hands of a third party.
Similarly, AI for the rakyat is largely government-driven, with the Economy Ministry working with just one private company, Intel.
And we are glad to note that apart from Bahasa Malaysia, the portal is also inclusively available in English, Chinese and Tamil (the last is rare indeed).
The government is hoping to have one million Malaysians become familiar with AI skills in three years.
That’s all well and good, but we must ensure that this portal does not go the way of previous tech initiatives, like the Multimedia Super Corridor, which did not reach its full potential.
All these digital initiatives need real support in the form of nurturing ecosystems and infrastructure, serious investment, and an open acceptance of all sorts of different talents.
Most importantly, “knowing” AI does not lessen the urgent need for solid cybersecurity laws and a moral code of ethics to govern the use and development of all digital initiatives, including AI.
As Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli stressed at the portal’s launch, there must be optimal end-to-end conditions and wholesome policies to accompany the growth of AI.
Rafizi argued that without trustworthy data and secure channels, the products and services driven by AI technology could not be implemented properly.
“To be the regional and global AI hub, we must be able to create new uses for AI. This can only be done if we have ready and accessible data,” he said, pointing out that Padu is a step towards this.
AI untuk Rakyatis a self-learning online program designed to raise public awareness aboutArtificial Intelligence (AI). It aims to demystify AI for people from all walks of life – astudent, astay-at-home parent, aprofessionalin any field, asenior citizen- basically, anyone interested in getting acquainted with it and wanting to build a ‘Digital First Mindset'
The program is divided into two sections:AI AwareandAI Appreciate.
Both sections can be completed in about four hours. Each section is based on AI-related concepts explained through engaging activities and quizzes. The users can take the quizzes as many times as they want. After they complete these quizzes, they become bearers ofAI AwareandAI Appreciatebadges that they can share on their social media accounts.
What is AI untuk Rakyat?
Who is this program for? Who should/ can attend/ participate in it?
What is the duration of this program?
What is covered in the program?
What are the prerequisites for this program?
What will I get once I complete the program?
Can I call myself an AI expert after attending this program?
I have finished the program. What is the next step?
I am unable to select my birth year on the registration page. What should I do?
I did not receive the OTP. What do I do?
My query is not resolved yet - whom should I reach out to?
China posted a GDP growth of 5.2 percent for 2023 on Wednesday, successfully meeting last year's annual target and in line with market forecast.
The world's second-largest economy is now at 126 trillion yuan ($17.67 trillion) and an official with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) projected that China was the world's largest growth engine for the past year.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, China's GDP expanded 5.2 percent.
The NBS data came after Chinese Premier Li Qiang made a revelation of the 5.2-percent GDP growth for 2023 during a speech at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos on Tuesday.
At Davos, Li called for global cooperation in various areas to rebuild global trust, including strengthening macroeconomic policy coordination and international industrial specialization and cooperation, warning that lack of trust and fragmentation will risk global economic growth and peaceful development.
Chinese analysts said the GDP reading showed that China's economy has achieved a remarkably steady growth and emerged from the shadows of the pandemic over the past 12 months, despite factors including a slowdown in the real estate industry.
Standout achievements include vibrant services sector spending, substantial investments in high-end manufacturing, and notable progress in foreign trade activities. These compelling data refute the continuous attempts by certain foreign media outlets to paint a negative picture of China's economic recovery, they noted.
The data highlight the strong internal dynamics of the Chinese economy and its significant potential for continuous expansion, even amid a turbulent international macroeconomic environment, continuing to drive global resurgence, said analysts.
"Facing complex international environment and arduous tasks of domestic reform and development in 2023, the Chinese economy witnessed the momentum of recovery, supply and demand improved, transformation and upgrades advanced solidly … And major expected targets were achieved," Kang Yi, head of NBS, told a State Council Information Office press conference on Wednesday.
China's 5.2-percent growth in 2023 far exceeded an estimated average of 3-percent growth of the world economy. Contribution of the Chinese economy to the world economy is expected to exceed 30 percent with China becoming the largest growth engine of global growth, Kang said, noting that the increase of China's GDP in 2023, at more than 6 trillion yuan, equals to the whole year GDP of a medium-sized country.
Specifically, whole-year value-added of the industrial enterprises above designated size went up 4.6 percent year-on-year, retail sales of consumer goods were up 7.2 percent, and fixed-asset investment edged up by 3.0 percent.
Looking ahead, the NBS chief said, "we must be aware that the external environment is increasingly complex, severe and uncertain, and the economic growth is still facing difficulties and challenges."
Analysts interviewed by the Global Times said the government will need to tackle a number of issues including ultra-low inflation and a weak property sector in 2024, while calling for the rolling out of more pro-growth stimulus.
Cao Heping, an economist at Peking University, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the fact that the Chinese economy can achieve a 5.2-percent growth rate under the severe conditions last year is a proof that the Chinese economy has firmly set its foot on the track of new economy, which is powered by digital technologies.
Zhou Maohua, a macroeconomic analyst at Everbright Bank, told the Global Times on Wednesday that there are certain fluctuations in the recovery trajectory in 2023, suggesting uneven recovery. "More efforts are needed to restore the full vigor of the economy."
China's recovering industrial sector faces uncertainty of overseas demand, spillover effects of geopolitical conflicts and the reshaping of global industrial and supply chain, Zhou noted.
Hu Qimu, deputy secretary-general of the digital-real economies integration Forum 50, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the government needs to spend more efforts to bolster up prices of goods, as a continued softening of consumer prices will hurt expectations.
NBS' Kang responded to a media question at the conference, saying the streak of Consumer Price Index declines seen in recent months is mainly driven by structural and periodical factors, noting the CPI in 2024 is expected to rebound mildly.
Positive factors
NBS' Kang said the Chinese economy is expected to continue on a recovery track and faces more opportunities than challenges in 2024 as factors supporting the high-quality development of the Chinese economy are converging. Recently, international organizations including the IMF and the OECD have revised China's growth projections in 2024.
Experts pointed out that the Chinese economy has demonstrated remarkable resilience in 2023 and they noted that the Chinese economy will continue to forge ahead in 2024 despite global challenges as China has room to intensify policies aimed at driving economic growth.
Xing Zhaopeng, senior China strategist with ANZ Research, said China is expected to set a GDP growth target of 5 percent for 2024 and "potential growth should still be above 5 percent."
"We expect China will roll out strong measures to guide the green consumption and investment, to help offload the excess supplies in the economy," Xing told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Yu Yongding, academic advisor to the CF40 and Member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, also said in a recent signed article that "In my opinion, the economic growth target for China in 2024 should not be lower than 5 percent."
"In 2024, we expect China's economy to grow by around 5 percent, which would be very impressive," Li Daokui, director of Tsinghua University's Academic Center for Chinese Economic Practice and Thinking (ACCEPT), said at a recent forum.
"On the positive side, consumption of goods will continue to expand as the lingering effect of the pandemic fades further away in 2024 and employment and resident income continue to improve, resulting in further lifting up of consumer confidence," Zhou said. "The property market is set to stabilize with the implementation of the government's supportive policies, and this will bring recoveries to related industries."
As the new year begins, efforts are being made to achieve a robust economic start all over the country.
Thousands of key projects saw construction begin in a number of localities including East China's Jiangsu Province, South China' Guangdong Province, Shanghai, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, focusing in the field of new economy, high-end manufacturing, infrastructure and urban improvement, the Economic Daily reported on Monday.
According to a report from the Chinese Academy of Sciences Center for Forecasting Science, China's economy will maintain a stable growth in 2024, with forecasted GDP growth hitting 5.3 percent.
China's 5.2% growth encouragement for global economic recovery: Global Times editorial
China's National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday released a series of key data on China's economy for the year 2023. Among them, the most attention-grabbing is the year-on-year GDP growth of 5.2 percent, which is higher than the expected target set at the beginning of last year. Once again, the actual trajectory of China's economy stands out from some external pessimistic views, criticisms, and even collapse theories, demonstrating robust resilience and potential. According to estimates based on the World Bank's predictions for growth rates of major economies in 2023, China's economic increment is approximately 1.5 times that of the US and around 16.5 times that of the Eurozone. China's contribution to global economic growth is greater than the combined contributions of the Americas, Europe, and Japan, making it a leading engine for global economic growth.
From the reports and commentaries of various domestic and international media, it is evident that this figure is generally in line with, or even exceeds, market expectations. To be frank, the Chinese economy's recovery in 2023 was not entirely smooth. The impact of the pandemic's "scar effect" on the economy was larger than anticipated, with the real estate sector persistently sluggish. Simultaneously, the weak global economic recovery exerted pressure on trade growth, and the spillover effects of actions such as the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes and the appreciation of the US dollar shouldn't be underestimated. The public, to varying degrees, have experienced the impacts of these domestic and external challenges in their micro-level perceptions over the past year.
There were once even voices of "deflation" in public opinion, and opportunistic individuals outside even seized the opportunity to chant the "collapse of the Chinese economy." Achieving such results in this context is undoubtedly of positive significance. It not only plays a constructive role in allowing both domestic and international observers to gain a timely and clear understanding of the overall picture of the Chinese economy but also serves as the best refutation of the various unfounded theories and speculations about the Chinese economy. Furthermore, it provides a strong encouragement amid the generally lower expectations for global economic recovery this year.
In fact, based on various data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, it is evident that China's economy underwent an accelerated transformation last year. First, the traditional "three engines" that drive the economy - exports, consumption, and investment - are undergoing significant changes in their contribution to economic growth. In 2023, the contribution rate of domestic demand, represented by consumption and investment, to economic growth reached 111.4 percent, an increase of 25.3 percentage points on the previous 12 months. However, there is also a problem of insufficient effective demand, and the combination of supply-side structural reform and expanding effective demand needs further strengthening.
Second, the structural adjustment and transformation and upgrading of economic development have been accelerating. In 2023, more than 1 trillion yuan ($140 billion) worth of "new three items," namely electric vehicles, solar panels, and lithium batteries, have been exported, with investments in high-tech manufacturing and high-tech services growing by 9.9 percent and 11.4 percent respectively. However, we have also seen that the potential of high-tech industries to drive the national economy has not been fully realized yet.
It should be said that it is precisely in the complex and diverse process of China's economic changes that various observations and feelings have been formed. However, for a super-large-scale economy like China, and a big ship like the Chinese economy, the most important thing is to determine if it is sailing in the right direction. In the process of the aforementioned economic development, we have already witnessed the strong potential of moving toward high-quality development. This is why the 5.2 percent figure represents the confidence that the Chinese economy can navigate the challenges this year. Now, the key is to release this potential with sufficient patience and redoubled efforts, and smoothly achieve the transformation and upgrading of the economic structure.
It can be foreseen that 2024 will also not be a smooth journey, as competition among various forces will intensify. However, what's certain is that in the context of the global economic growth expected to slow down, the continuous rise of geopolitical risks, the onset of a super innovation cycle, and the acceleration of global green transformation, China's overall macroeconomic and policy direction is the clearest and most stable among all major economies. We will seek new growth driving factors through tech innovation, transformation and upgrading, continuously increasing investment in areas such as digital economy, artificial intelligence development, and green technology, while continuing to exert the policy effects of stabilizing growth. The resilient Chinese economy will provide the world with certainty and stability.
The 5.2 percent growth figure for China's economy in 2023 is a strong number, given the size of the Chinese economy, its state of development and the weak outlook for global growth. I sharply disagree with critics who say the Chinese economy is stumbling.
China's consumption in 2023 played a vital role in bolstering economic development. Final consumption contributed 82.5 percent of overall GDP growth, while retail sales set a new record of 47.15 trillion yuan ($6.62 trillion), data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Wednesday.
EXCLUSIVE
PETALING JAYA: There is a small segment of the police force that is delinquent, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) has admitted.
He said only about 2% of the police force have been found to have committed wrongdoings last year. Nevertheless, with a 137,000-strong police force, that means about 2,740 personnel have been found to be rogue.
Tan Sri Razarudin Husain (pic), exasperated and concerned over the bad press the police have received recently, is telling his officers to carry out their duties honourably to earn the trust and confidence of the public.
“I urge personnel, especially frontliners, who carry out their duties with integrity to elevate the image of the police force. Serve the public with integrity, this is all I ask,” he said.
Razarudin said that apart from disciplinary action including pay cuts, demotions, suspensions and dismissals over various wrongdoings, several police officers were also charged in court for committing serious crimes.
“It is this small percentage of cops who bring ill-repute and tarnish the image the police force.
These wrong-doers will face severe consequences. No crooked cop will be tolerated or spared from stern action.
“If their supervisors or station heads are found to be incompetent, then we will transfer them out and replace them with capable officers,” Razarudin told The Star.
He said the police Integrity and Standard Compliance Department (JIPS) would continue to weed out delinquent personnel.
Over the past month, rogue cops have left the police top brass red-faced after running foul of the law.
On Sunday, a police station chief from Johor was caught on video assaulting a man at an undisclosed location. Johor police said the man was also transferred to the Batu Pahat police headquarters while he awaits the outcome of investigations.
On Wednesday, two Ampang Jaya policemen were arrested for allegedly raping a foreign student and robbing her male friend in Bukit Ampang View in Ampang Jaya.
On Jan 4, four policemen from Kuala Lumpur were held for allegedly extorting RM10,000 from a man in Kepong.
Another six policemen attached to the Brickfields district police headquarters were arrested at a house in Taman Tan Yew Lai on the same day for allegedly processing ketum leaves for distribution and their own consumption.
Last month, three policemen who were part of a raiding party of a major operation against illegal immigrants at Jalan Silang on Dec 22 were arrested for stealing RM85,000 from a store.
On Dec 19, senior cop Deputy Supt Mohd Nazri Abdul Razak, 44, was charged with murder in Ipoh for allegedly crashing his car into a 17-year-old student and causing his death four days earlier.
Razarudin said daily reminders to stay away from undesirable acts are issued to frontline personnel who perform patrol duties or crime prevention rounds.
“They are constantly checked by their supervisors. They are reminded of their responsibility and to stay away from all wrongdoings in their daily briefings too. All rules, the dos and don’ts are all in place and we regularly improve these measures.
“However, despite drumming all these good values and advice into them, there are recalcitrant personnel who are defiant and choose to be involved in such acts.
“I can only say that it just boils down to one’s character and principles. If a person has evil intentions, no morals, no fear of God and the law, he will commit such acts,” he warned
Taiwan independence’ means war, and the red line drawn by the Chinese mainland is clear
'Taiwan independence' a dead-end, sabotages peace in Straits.
..
DPP wins presidency but loses majority in Legislature
https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202401140002
Illustration: Chen Xia/GT
China promotes peace while US embraces wars
Thailand and China will waive visa requirements for each other's citizens from March, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin announced on Tuesday. It will be a win-win situation for both the Chinese people and the Thai people.
China and Thailand are very friendly toward each other. In terms of culture and the way of doing business, China and Thailand have a lot in common. Against the backdrop, the visa-free policy will promote economic and trade engagement between China and Thailand in many ways.
In December, China and Singapore announced a mutual 30-day visa-free policy. China and Malaysia also have similar mutual visa-free policy. Although the visa waiver schemes with Singapore and Malaysia are not permanent, I hope that Singapore, Malaysia, and other ASEAN countries can also follow Thailand's example. The better such a visa exemption arrangement will be, the better it will be for the recipient countries in terms of boosting their tourist industry.
Traditionally, China has deep and friendly relations with most ASEAN members. Such exchanges of friendship and goodwill are based on hundreds, even thousands, of years. This kind of communication will continue in various forms. As of July 2023, the cumulative bilateral investment between China and ASEAN countries had exceeded $380 billion, with over 6,500 direct investment enterprises established in ASEAN. China has maintained its position as ASEAN's largest trading partner for 14 consecutive years, and the two sides have been each other's top trading partner for three consecutive years.
Tourism could become a catalyst for China and ASEAN countries to expand cooperation and promote integration. Visa waiver programs will promote China and Southeast Asia to be better integrated. There is still a lot of potential for development between China and ASEAN, for example, in environmental cooperation and energy cooperation, and in particular, in cooperation in science and technology.
China-ASEAN cooperation will set a good example for many other countries. We will also be in a better position to promote peace, stability and prosperity throughout the world.
What happens between China and ASEAN serves as a stark contrast to the situation in Europe and the Middle East. The Israel-Palestine conflict and the Russia-Ukraine conflict are still going on. It is truly a tragedy to see war rage in other parts of the world. However, in Asia, we have managed to do our best to promote peace and stability and avoid using war as an instrument to solve any bilateral disputes.
The current momentum between China and ASEAN is something that the US will hardly learn. From the financial support given to Ukraine by the US as well as the US' stance in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, all the decisions taken by the US are merely based on its own interests.
Actually, most Americans are friendly, and they love peace rather than war. In that sense, I do think people from China, the US, and many other countries in the world can jointly make an effort to make sure that war is not being embraced by any country.
This task is very challenging. A slight carelessness could rock the boat and divert our attention from peaceful engagement and cooperation with each other to confrontation, rivalry, or another version of the Cold War.
China will continue to play a very important role in the peacekeeping operations of the United Nations. That means China will have a lot of things to do to promote peace and stability. And this visa-free policy between China and Thailand starting in March this year will be a good start for 2024.
China's National Bureau of Statistics is due to release the country's GDP data for 2023 on Wednesday. While there seems no doubt about whether China's GDP met the government's annual target in 2023, a new wave of Western speculation about China's "grim" economic prospects has unfolded.
Kindness nurtures brilliance: Dr Parthiban visiting Lioe at the retirement home he pays for. With him are his son Laxmirayan and mother Sampuranam Ponalagu, 70.
PETALING JAYA: From a mischievous child in his early years and then a gangster in secondary school, nobody would have imagined that Parthiban Navoo would someday be performing brain surgery and saving lives.
With his poor grades, his school teachers had given up on him and often remarked that he would fail “even as a labourer.”
But an act of kindness and compassion by his favourite teacher at a Chinese vernacular school was all it took to motivate and transform the unruly child to the renowned neurosurgeon he is today.
Dr Parthiban, 56, and his three siblings grew up in a shophouse in Sungai Lalang, Kedah, a small village surrounded by estates and populated predominantly by Chinese-Malaysians, about 10km from Sungai Petani.
His parents ran a small sundry shop in the village which he describes as a “cowboy town,” and struggled to make ends meet with meagre earnings from the business.
Dr Parthiban said there were days his family had to settle for just a single meal.
Most days, it was just black coffee for breakfast before he took a five-minute walk to his school SJK Chung Hwa, which he attended from Year One until Form Five.
He had very few friends and showed little interest in his studies, often failing all subjects in every exam.
“It was in the 1970s and I got enrolled in the school as it was the closest to home. My parents could not afford to give me any tuckshop money and during recess, I was the only ethnic Indian student in the school and would spend my time alone sitting on a guava tree in my school compound,” said Dr Parthiban, who is a neurologist at a private hospital.
The spark for change came in Year Three, when his class teacher Lioe Sie Luan saw his potential.
Lioe, whom Dr Parthiban fondly refers to as “Low Ser” (teacher in Chinese), asked him what he was doing up a tree every day during recess.
After Dr Parthiban told her about his plight, she led him to the teacher’s room.
“She took out a tiffin carrier from her bag and served me some mee hoon she had packed from home.
“She told me that I no longer had to go hungry as she would bring food for me every day.
“There were stares from the other teachers, but Low Ser told me to ignore them.
“ She gave me words of encouragement and made me feel special, as if I was some top student in school when I was a complete failure and all my marks were in the red,” he added.
The 50-something teacher also gave Dr Parthiban a Chinese name.
“She said with the right name, I would succeed and go very far in life. Hence, she named me Mah Der Ven, which means as energetic as a horse, knowledgeable, and wise,” he said.
However, Lioe retired two years later and Dr Parthiban was back to his old ways, even joining a street gang upon entering secondary school.
“I was notorious and beyond control. I got into confrontations with other gangs and was arrested several times by the police, ending up for days in the lock-up.
“However, because I was underaged, I was let off all the time,” he said.
His turning point was in Form Three when he was reprimanded by his teachers for his dismal grades, and was told that he couldn’t even make it as a kacang putih (nut snack) seller.
“On that day, I remembered Low Ser’s advice, and started focusing on my studies day and night. I decided it was time to turn over a new leaf. When I scored straight As for my SRP and SPM exams, there was no turning back.
“I went on to pursue Form Six in another school in Sungai Petani, and emerged top student for the STPM,” he said, adding that his results enabled him to obtain a seat for medicine in Universiti Malaya.
He managed to locate his former teacher and stayed in contact with Lioe until she was placed in a nursing home in Sungai Petani after her husband passed away.
“She lost her house to her in-laws after her husband died. Both her children, a son and daughter, migrated overseas and never returned to Malaysia.
“She ended up in a low-cost nursing home with poor living conditions as she could not afford a better one,” said the surgeon who has a 17-year-old son.
Dr Parthiban, who by then was a doctor in public service, promptly returned to Sungai Petani and visited Lioe at the nursing home before moving her to a more conducive retirement home, footing the extra costs for the improved care until today.
“She is 90 years old now. Every time I visit her, she keeps telling me that she’s a burden to me. To me, it is nothing compared to what she did for me. I am where I am today because of my dear Low Ser.
“It is the least I can do for a great person who changed my life. She showered me with love and compassion.
“Her kind act gave me hope that there was someone out there who believed in me. This spurred me to change and give up my wayward ways.”
