The local opposition members like their new supremo Mahathir Mohamad tend to look down on the wisdom and capability of the local leaders and people to develop the Light Railway Transit, the Digital Economy and a Development Bank of Sarawak.
They express a common sentiment “what is the point of going for advanced stuff such as the Digital Economy when there are people in remote areas, who do not even have basic amenities such as water and electricity?” It is a legitimate issue, which the Chief Minister, Datuk Patinggi (Dr) Abang Johari Tun Openg is addressing as part of the overall socio-economic programme towards the year 2030.
To him, it is a great honour, which comes with a huge responsibility as Chief Minister, the sixth Chief Minister of Sarawak. He pledged to take the job seriously and serve the people by ensuring greater prosperity in the homeland in the coming few years.
Sarawak is privileged to be endowed with abundant natural resources, which have been serving as the main economic driver for many years. This has brought about rapid growth of the economy. The State has seen the rapid expansion of urban centres, continuous growth in rural areas and improvement in the lives of the people.
The output in current prices during the last 36 years rose by 9.2% per annum on average, while the population rose by only 2.2% per annum on average – which means that the State has been experiencing an improvement in income per person by about 7% per annum.
The people have been enjoying an improvement in their living standard. However, in the last few years, the currency has weakened and the incomes in foreign currency terms have suffered also.
It affects the State’s buying power for foreign goods but not locally produced products. Therefore, the people have to work harder and produce more local goods and services so that they can enjoy better standard of living.
The people also have to work harder in using their skills and knowledge and make use of new technologies to create good jobs for the talented young men and women. The good business opportunities must be made available for those who are keen to become entrepreneurs.
Abang Johari, in his speech during the last sitting of the State Legislative Assembly, said that Sarawak must be made an exciting place to live, work and play in the process of building new societies based on knowledge, skills, technology and capital. The best way to create new opportunities is by encouraging competition in an open market.
In the past when the local market was small there was only room for one or two players, the most appropriate strategy was to encourage the growth of home players and to some extent, protect against foreign competition.
However, the economy, which has grown by 23 times in the last 36 years in nominal GDP terms, is big enough for competition to be encouraged in order to lower the cost of doing business and domestic prices.
Hence, the State should not let one company dominate in one or more sectors and that there should be at least two or three companies to compete in each sector to see consumers being given better deals by suppliers.
Abang Johari said that the State should encourage imports and exports as Sarawak is an open economy and should allow competition among local companies and allow foreign companies to come into Sarawak especially in areas which are technologically deficient.
These foreign companies can employ local people and transfer technical skills to them as being done in Samajaya and Samalaju. The State, now developing hydropower supply, will attract more major companies to come and build the industrial economic base. There are great opportunities with interests being shown by Japan, South Korea and China.
Scarce resources
Abang Johari said that the Government will ensure that no one should be deprived of basic amenities that now constitute a comfortable modern life. However, it has to make careful use of scarce resources at the heart of every economic calculation.
It is from scarcity that the concept of opportunity cost or the cost in the loss of opportunity arises. The Government has to use scarce resources to do one thing thereby rendering all the other things undone.
He said economic prosperity comes when scarce resources are used to do productive things. Economic depression comes when scarce resources are used to do unproductive things. Bearing all these things in mind the proper approach to the issue is a balanced approach to development.
The State should endeavor to balance the strengthening of economic foundation and improving the wellbeing of the communities. The end purpose of all economic activities is for the wellbeing of the people but necessary steps must be taken to develop the economy in order to sustain the position to help the people in the future.
Once the rural communities around the world live in happy isolation, thinking their world was the best of all possible worlds. However, with the internet today they can see that there is a paradise outside of their villages and the bright lights of the cities are calling them.
This happened most dramatically in Japan when in the heydays of the 1990s the Government refused to recognise the falling-out of its economic base as a result of the rise of China as a manufacturing hub, they pump-primed the economy by printing money and the reckless building of physical infrastructure.
Now the world-class roads, good bus and rail networks and even shopping malls can be seen even in very small rural towns. These infrastructure facilities were built no doubt also for political reasons because, as in many countries, the majority of the votes are in the rural areas.
But there are very few young adults as most are the elderly and the very young. All the able bodied of young Japanese men and women have gone to the big cities in search of their dreams.
The World Bank shows that urbanisation around the world has grown from 34% in 1960 to 43% in 1990 and 54% in 2016. By 2045, more than 80% of the world population will be living in cities.
For Sarawak, the population demography has changed from 70% rural and 30% urban in 1970s to about 40% rural and 60% urban currently. The major cities and towns remain Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu and Miri.
The sub-urban areas and smaller towns are those that lie just outside these cities and towns. Further out will be the rural villages, which are in the interior but still accessible by roads. The real challenge for development is in bringing even basic amenities to remote villages.
Abang Johari said the State’s strategy in developing basic infrastructure throughout Sarawak will be the integration of the delivery of public utilities, including telecommunications, in areas earmarked for development. For isolated and remote communities, the strategy is to integrate the delivery of all the services for water, electricity and telecommunications.
He said the target is to deliver 100 mbps in urban and sub-urban centres and other areas of economic importance such as major tourism attractions. The target in rural areas is to deliver between 20 and 50 mbps. They will also have roads, water and electricity.
He added that the State Government, as a responsible government, will start building the internet connectivity in preparing for the year 2030, which is only 13 years. The strategic problems of Sarawak, which has a big geography with a tiny population, means that it is costly to build the basic infrastructure to cover the whole land.
The small population makes it not suitable for labor-intensive industries while the large landmass is inclined to force the Government to be related to agriculture. The relative isolation means communication with the rest of the world. It is more uneconomical if the volume is low.
Strategically, Kuching must be developed into a major competitive city with sufficiently skilled workforce. Let Kuching be that city that retains Sarawakians, as people from small towns and villages converge in big cities to look for big opportunities.
The population of Kuching, which still have plenty of room to grow, has been growing at a very slow pace of 1.5% per annum in the last seven (7) years to 685,000 people. Kuching City, the North and South combined, has an estimated population of 360,000 people in 2017.
Padawan has an estimated population of 303,000 people while Samarahan has about 95,000 people and Serian about 101,500 people. Therefore, the greater Kuching now has a population of 1 million.
The pace of population growth is likely to be constrained by the lack of good jobs and business opportunities in Kuching, which needs development to become more vibrant and economically viable. It is projected that the population of Kuching will grow to 1.2 million people in the next 10 to 15 years to enable Sarawak to have better critical mass.
The growth of the city will be triggered by the development of the Digital Economy, which is actively being pursued by the State Government in order to create good jobs for talents among Sarawakians.
In this regard, conscientious efforts must be made to attract talents from overseas to come and work in Sarawak. For example, private education industry has been able to attract students while the private healthcare industry attracts visitors to come on a regular basis.
Greater Kuching as a Smart City
Abang Johari pledges to build the Greater Kuching as a Smart City based on Transit Oriented Development (TOD) with a good public transport system structured on the Light Rail Transit (LRT) supported by integrated auxiliary transport systems like Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), taxis, ride-sharing services and private vehicles. Indeed, there is a lot that can be done to make Kuching and the Greater Kuching area into a livable conurbation.
In this connection, efforts must be made to density the city centre to attract young talents, who are happy to live in compact housing packed with modern amenities. Kuching should no longer belong to Kuching people only but should play host to the whole world. It has the attraction of both the modern and ancient.
The State should price the attractions properly because natural assets are unique in the world. Building all types of infrastructure is the responsibility of the Government of the day
like roads and other basic amenities.
It is also the responsibility of the Government to mitigate urban population travel woes which is another form of cost centre. Better still, to anticipate the potential travel problem as Kuching grows.
The ultimate purpose is to minimise economic opportunity costs without too much expectation for return on investment (ROI) because a lot of future spin-offs can be expected from that infrastructure development.
Understandably, the private sector and the general public will be the obvious major beneficiaries. In other words, if the people cannot achieve commercial viability they have to ensure economic feasibility where social benefits are greater than financial costs.
LRT to trigger to things
However, the development of the LRT should not be seen in isolation but as a trigger to a larger scheme of things. The LRT can be one central piece in a larger fit whereby the overall result of the entire scheme is a net gain for the city, even in financial terms when all the related elements are taken into consideration.
However, the project must start with the Light Railway system (LRT) first without losing sight of the needs of other parts of Sarawak in the years to come. Besides, conscientious efforts must be made to emphasise Sarawak as an attraction for visitors of all kinds – students, entrepreneurs and the casual tourists.
So far, Sarawak has been and still is being marketed primarily as a tourist destination – a destination for the casual tourists. This should not be the case as Sarawak has more attractions for many different kinds of visitors, including naturalists, environmentalists and anthropologists.
Actually, Sarawak has a brand that can be successfully marketed in generic terms for the purpose of positioning it strategically in the world – the image of a place where people must come to visit and stay or live, work and play.
Obviously, the strategy to market Sarawak must be broad and strategic. However, it can also focus more narrowly on tourism, education, healthcare, industries and other specific sectors. As a matter of fact, the name SARAWAK is now already a brand.
The diversity, harmony, peace, multiracial and multi religious tolerance, apart from the famous food such as Laksa SARAWAK and Kek Lapis SARAWAK, has made SARAWAK a well known brand amongst a lot of people in other parts of Malaysia and the world at large.
ANAK SARAWAK
