Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg acknowledged that certain quarters greeted new ideas, such as digital economy and light rapid transit, with scepticism.
“We cannot gamble our future by depending solely on existing resources and traditional economy such as oil and gas, timber and palm oil, which we all know are not sustainable and are facing more challenges in light of environmental issues and climate change.
“We must be bold enough to explore new areas of growth and implement new initiatives that can drive our economy further,” he said in his winding-up speech at the DUN sitting yesterday.
“We must start to explore these opportunities now and not in the future because technologies have been developed and are being used in developed countries,” he said in his ministerial winding up speech at the assembly sitting yesterday.
Abang Johari said it was important for everyone to understand that implementing the initiatives was critical to the state’s economy because it would provide a wider access to the global market for local products through high-speed broadband connectivity and to enhance competitiveness to attract high-technology investment through better IT facilities and connectivity.
“Apart from that, the initiatives can help to develop local talents in specific areas of technology, including Digital Media, Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cyber Security; to develop our biodiversity-related industries through commercialisation of R&D products as well as to act as a game changer to spur development within city centre through the concept of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) and 3Ds, namely shorter Distance, high population Density and greater market Demand.”
“The initiatives will also trigger the development of new industrial clusters based on new products, including hydrogen fuel cells and create spin-offs to the local economy through the generation of more high-value job and business opportunities,” he said.
He said the implementation of digital economy initiatives was progressing well since the establishment of the Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) in Nov 2017.
“Funded by the state government, 300 telecommunication towers are being implemented for 2019 to 2020 and another 300 towers after 2020. We expect this will bring down the cost of connectivity, which will benefit the people and cost of doing business.”
On Sarawak ID, a unified digital identification for users of state government online services, Abang Johari said it was being used by 135,000 and it supported 14 state government applications, including eLASIS and Talikhidmat.
He also said the Sarawak Pay digital wallet had attracted 65,000 users and adopted by more than 2,100 merchants while the Sarawak Data initiative had 147 sets of data from various state government agencies ready for use.
“Five Digital Innovation Hubs have been established in Kuching, Sibu, Miri, Bintulu and Sarikei and produced 75 new start-ups and helped 1,458 entrepreneurs. At the same time, 26 research grants have been provided to five universities in Sarawak benefitting 22 students at Masters and Doctoral Degrees.
“Next, 16 workshops on ‘Industry 4.0 Awareness Program’ were conducted benefitting over 1,000 participants, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operators and manufacturing workers,” he said.
Abang Johari also mentioned that 194 computer trainings were conducted and benefitted 30,969 participants, as well as 9,300 visitors visited SCAT Fair exhibitions and 869 students participated in Innovators Programmes.
