Empowerment of the civil service through transformation initiatives

KOTA KINABALU: The state public sector needs to continuously galvanise itself through civil service transformation initiatives to ensure the success of the State Government development’s agenda, said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Hajiji Haji Noor.
“We need to be always on the lookout and carry out transformation programmes to empower the civil service. This will ensure we have the best team that keeps abreast with the current needs,” he said.
The Chief Minister said he is fully committed to supporting any initiative aimed at transforming and strengthening the state or federal civil services.
“Among the priorities are bolstering integrity and professionalism among civil servants, enhancing the government delivery system, encouraging a productive work culture, innovation and creativity as well as creating a strategic communication mechanism so that all government policies can be heard, seen and felt by the rakyat,” he said.
Addressing the State Civil Service Assembly at the Sabah International Convention Centre here on Tuesday, Hajiji said among the transformation approaches being taken currently were the development of three data hubs namely the People Hub, Business Hub and Geo Hub under the Data Integration and Interchange Platform (DIIP).
The DIIP is a data-sharing platform that facilitates Government-to-Government (G2G), Government-to-Business (G2B) and Government-to-Citizen (G2C) data sharing, which had paved the way for the creation of the Sabah Digital Marketplace to spur the growth of people-orientated businesses.
“I welcome the state public service’s commitment to put in place the Good Regulatory Practice (GRP) beginning 2021,” he said.
Hajiji was also proud that Sabah had received the Regulatory Champion Award as the Most Active State in GRP Implementation from the Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC) during the 2021 Good Regulatory Practice National Conference.
“The public service transformation also covers aspects ranging from the welfare of personnel, promotion opportunities, management and work environment, healthcare and housing. All of these must be given priority,” he said.
Under the SMJ 1.0 development plan (2021-2025), he said a 136-acre land in the Papar district has been allocated for the development of civil service housing.
He also fully supported the State Public Service Department’s initiative to introduce the High Performing Organisational Happiness Index (IKOBT), a study being conducted in collaboration with researchers from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS).
“Results from the study are crucial in formulating suitable strategies to transform the public service,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hajiji who is also State Finance Minister said positive responses from the Sabah International Business and Economic Summit (SIBES) 2022 on 17-18 January proved that investors could see investment potential in Sabah.
A total of 780 delegations including 57 from 15 countries, among them 10 foreign envoys attended the two-day SIBES at SICC.
The momentum of investors’ interests and confidence in Sabah continued post-SIBES with many meeting requests being received from businessmen from outside of Sabah as well as foreign diplomats.
Hajiji disclosed that a Middle East diplomatic entourage will be coming to see him soon, as a follow-up to an earlier meeting between them in Kuala Lumpur last year.
“They really want to come to Sabah to see for themselves the (investment) potentials here,” he said.
In this respect, he urged the civil service’s full commitment to ensure the move to grow Sabah’s economy through the state’s investment strategy will bear fruits.