Sarawak Yang di-Pertua Negeri wants strategic measures taken to spur state's economy

KUCHING: Sarawak Yang di-Pertua Negeri, Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud said strategic measures should be taken to drive the state's economic growth.
He said strategic measures were necessary in facing the uncertain global economic situation, however, he was happy with Sarawak's economy which continued to grow with a low inflation rate last year.
"Sarawak's economic growth rate is expected to remain strong at around 3.5 to 4.0 per cent in 2017, in tandem with the country's economic growth, while the inflation rate is still low, at below 3.0 per cent."
Abdul Taib said this in his speech at the opening of the First Session, Second Term of the 18th Sarawak State Legislative Assembly, here, today.
He was confident that the setting up of three cabinet committees, namely Socio-Economic Transformation, Rural Transformation, and Performance and Service Delivery Transformation would ensure that the initiatives undertaken in the State Government Transformation Programme could be successfully implemented.
"I urge all parties to play their respective role and to give a high level of commitment in realising the state's development objectives towards making Sarawak a high-income developed state by 2030," he said.
Abdul Taib said Sarawak's natural resources needed to be managed in a sustainable manner by bolstering the state's economic foundation to a higher-value chain and by diversifying activities, especially those based on the state's rich natural resources.
In this regard, he welcomed the state government's new economic development initiatives. He noted that in facing rapid technological advancement, the state government's decision to implement and develop digital economy was timely.
"In our effort to continue competing at the international level, we should be modernising our state's economy by increasing investment, including in digital economy," he said.
On the digital economy and information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure development , Abdul Taib said this was getting more and more rapid and sophisticated at the global level, and in fact it had become the pillar of economic growth and development for some countries.
"Therefore, we need to prepare our people to enable them to grab the opportunities available in the digital economy."
He said exploring digital economy as a new economic growth source for the state could provide more opportunities for the people, especially those in the rural areas, to get involved in new forms of business such as e-commerce and e-learning which had a very wide and open market at the global level.
In light of this, he called the state's people, especially the youths, to make full use of the opportunities from this initiative to increase their income.
In his speech, Abdul Taib also called on the people to preserve unity and harmony, and to have mutual trust and respect as a multiracial society for the culture of unity in diversity to prevail. — Bernama