KUCHING: Sarawak cannot afford to be left behind in terms of digital technology adoption and digital economic growth which can very well benefit the people, said Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg.
In fact, he said Sarawak could also be on the same par with developed countries in this digital journey which saw the world experiencing more intricate and complex technological terms including 5G telecommunications, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Voice Recognition, Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR).
“Either we push ahead in new research areas or we will be always a follower without being able to bring much progress to our people and country,” he said in the opening address at the official launch of International Digital Economy Conference Sarawak 2019 (IDECS), here today.
Elaborating further, Abang Johari said there were so many other benefits of this digital economy, which almost every country in this world is forgoing into, and Sarawak had even charted its strategies and action plans which were currently in the early stage of implementation.
“Some of our early initiatives to implement our digital economy strategies are in digital government, manufacturing, smart city, tourism, agriculture and e-commerce.
“As for the digital government initiative, an online identification and authentication system known as ‘Sarawak ID’ has been implemented to enable the public to access and use the various online services or application systems of the Sarawak government,” he said.
The chief minister said as of July 1, the number of Sarawak ID registered users stood at 208,644 with 20 government services had been made accessible online.
On IDECS, Abang Johari said this was the third edition of the conference and involved 2,300 delegates from all around the world.
“To accelerate further our journey, we are partnering with top international digital technology players and I am glad that, tomorrow, there will be 10 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) exchanges between Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) and various international partners relating to Sarawak Digital Economy.
“There will also be one joint venture agreement (JVA) exchange between SACOFA and Datastream Technology Sdn Bhd (DST) of Brunei Darussalam, relating to providing high-speed retail internet services in Sarawak, and one MOU exchange between SACOFA and XPERANTI on partnership for the provision of IoT Solutions in Sarawak,” he added. — Bernama
