KUCHING: The first invitation to local businesses to embrace the Internet of Things (Iot) as a key enabler was launched here on Thursday (Oct 21).
The ‘MyReskill Iot Programme — Sarawak Region’ was organised by the Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC). Present to officiate at the event was International Trade and Industry, Industrial Terminal and Entrepreneur Development Assistant Minister Datuk Mohd Naroden Majais.
Naroden, who was representing Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, said Sarawak is fortunate to have embarked on a digital transformation journey in 2017 as part of its Digital Economy Strategy although it was not spared from the pandemic that had significantly weakened the global growth prospect.
“The contraction of Malaysia’s labour productivity by -5.5 percent in 2020 was the first since the 2009 global financial crisis and the lowest in 10 years.
“Sarawak was not spared from the significant downturn and experienced a declined growth in labour productivity at -3.9 percent in 2020 compared to 2019 at 0.3 percent.”
Naroden added that Sarawak also showed a decline in economic exports at 24.2 percent and unemployment rate increased to 4.3 percent in 2020.
“Adoption of technological advances is believed to have contributed to elevating 30 percent in productivity across all sectors.
“The establishment of MyReskill IoT Programme is vital for existing workers in Sarawak to remain relevant in the labour market and boosting productivity at enterprise, sectoral and national levels.
“This is also an opportunity to transform Malaysia into a digitally enabled and productivity-driven high-income nation.”
Meanwhile, MPC director-general Datuk Abdul Latif Abu Seman said the adoption and use of technology in various economic sectors is expected to contribute to 30 percent uplift in productivity by 2030.
“Data driven economic growth requires information systems to function as an integrated whole with interoperability between different organisations and information systems.
“As such, there is a need to increase the adoption of digital technology and innovation across all sectors of the economy.”
Similarly, Abdul Latif said the MyReskill IoT Programme would “encourage and support the upskill and reskilling of the current workforce in the local industries in accelerating adoption of technology to improve productivity.”
The programme, themed ‘Boosting Productivity Through Digitalisation’ is a five-day virtual workshop for the participants where they would be given the opportunity to learn IoT and advanced technical knowledge.
Also present were the executive director of Sarawak Skills Group of Learning Institutions, Hallman Sabri, and MPC board member Datuk Abang Abdul Karim Tun Openg.
