PUTRAJAYA, Jan 2 — The national Central Database Hub (Padu), which was launched today, has been lauded as an excellent government initiative to link data in one integrated system by combining all data from government departments and agencies.

Kumpulan Prasarana Malaysia Bhd chairman Tan Sri Jamaluddin Ibrahim said the introduction of Padu was timely to provide better services to the people.

“I was part of the Digital Economy Committee. We came out with a study to link all the data together. It became a big problem because everything is a bit separated and we need to bring them together to provide a better service to the public.

“This (the launch of Padu) is a fantastic achievement. Finally, it happened,” he told Bernama.

Padu is a system containing individual and household profiles encompassing citizens and permanent residents in Malaysia.

It integrates a national database by combining all data from government departments and agencies to give a fair picture of the socio-economic position of every Malaysian household.

Padu was developed entirely by civil servants from three main agencies consisting of the Ministry of Economy, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) and the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (Mampu), including the cooperation of other agencies.

Meanwhile, Mydin Mohamed Holdings Bhd’s managing director Datuk Ameer Ali Mydin said the implementation of the Padu system is something that the business community in Malaysia is looking forward to.

“With this Padu system, the hope is that there will be a targeted subsidy that is more effective and can reach the target group more comprehensively.

“With Padu, the government will be able to identify the target group (in need of help) in more detail. This initiative was launched at the right time,” he said.

In conjunction with the launch of Padu, Ameer Ali said the retail chain is providing a special offer where individuals who have registered with the Padu system can redeem discount vouchers from Mydin supermarkets. — Bernama