He also says the manufacturing sector in Sarawak will be transformed for more value-added and downstream- processing activities especially in high technology, heavy industries, resource and non-resource based downstream industries as well as to build the capacity of the small, medium enterprises. New innovations especially precision farming with the application of Internet of Things as well as latest research and development applications will be intensified.” “Increasing productivity in agriculture and commodity sector is key to this effort. “New business model will be introduced increase productions and productivity,” adds Abang Johari. In agriculture, he says the focus will be on commercialization and modernization leveraging on latest technology and artificial intelligence to intensify and improved productivity. This will increase productivity and efficiency, and global good practices can be adopted by other mining sectors,” he adds, believing that the mining sector will be a new source of our revenue.
“Our mining sector, particularly the oil and gas sector will utilize our Data Centre and Innovation to enhance its resources planning and deployment in place of conventional method. Big Data will be the new oil of our economy.”įor mining, he said the state government will emphasize on this sector as Sarawak has abundant minerals and natural resources such as oil, gas, coal, silica sands, limestone and others as new sources of revenue.
“Our Data Centre and Innovation will be environmentally sustainable as it consumes renewable energy. “The enhanced capacity will be further supported by ever growing need of digital services such as Digital ID, Digital Wallet, Big Data, Blockchain, Fintech, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence,” explains Abang Johari. He said the state will increase the capacity of its Data Centre and Innovation to cater to the ever-increasing demands across all economic sectors domestically as well as global needs. He explained that the two core principles consisted of the ten key propositions namely Data Centre and Innovation-The New Oil Mining-The New Source of Revenue High Productivity Commercial Agriculture and Commodity Sector High Value Downstream Manufacturing Re-greening Sarawak through Aggressive Industrial Forest Plantations Beyond Leisure Tourism Quality Social Services for the People Renewable Energy-Fuel of the Future and Aligning Education and Human Capital for the Future. We will ensure that Sarawak achieves a clean, healthy, and resilient environment for the current and future generations.” “Sustainable environment will feature prominently in our future development plan. “Hence, a data centre plays a pivotal role in driving innovation in the digital application sphere. “To enhance our economic productivity and competitiveness, we will intensify our Digital Economy Agenda across all sectors of Sarawak’s economy,” he continues. He says Sarawak will anchor on two core principles namely, digital economy and environmental sustainability. “Therefore, we have reviewed our development strategies under the 12th Malaysia Plan to recover from the severe economic impact due to Covid-19 so as to remain resilient, adapting to ‘the new normal’ and promote future economic growth and development,” he told a press conference at Wisma Bapa Malaysia. “This is the scenario that we have never experienced before and would require us to exercise a new way of doing things now and in the future.
“The impact brought by the pandemic has resulted in the creation and emergence of ‘the new normal’ globally and we would not be able to do ‘business as usual’ anymore,” says Abang Johari. He said the council will study the details of ten key propositions on developing its economic, social and governance sectors and obtain views from stakeholders such as chamber of commerce, professionals and academics to deliberate in details the various sectors in order to formulate action plans for achieving the new economic agenda for Sarawak after which the findings will then be submitted to the government by September 2020. Sarawak has formed a Sarawak Economic Action Council to facilitate the state government’s post Covid-19 exit economic strategy up to 2030, says Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg (pictured above).