BY LEE SHAW WEI & FASIHA KHUSHIRI
KUCHING: The Electronic Sarawak Government Activities Bill was unanimously passed in the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) today.
The Bill seeks to provide the necessary legal framework to become “e-enabled” without the need for further amendments to other state laws.
The Bill, tabled by Utility and Telecommunication Minister Datuk Julaihi Narawi, intends to facilitate Sarawak’s digital transformation under both the Sarawak Digital Economy Strategy 2018-2022 and the Post-COVID Development Strategy 2030 (PCDS 2030).
“This Bill seeks to provide legal recognition of electronic communication in its dealings between the government, local authorities and statutory bodies incorporated by State laws with the general public.
“Furthermore, with this new Bill in place, the government is moving toward achieving its aspiration in providing 100 percent end-to-end digital government services,” he said.
In line with this, Julaihi also stressed that to achieve these objectives, the government must change its way to deliver services to the general public.
“To accelerate digital transformation, the government aims to provide 100. percent end-to-end digital government services.
“Having that in mind, the government has launched its Sarawak ID in 2018 to provide a single point of authentication for users across platforms, so they need not create multiple accounts to use various services,” he added.
Since then, 50 government applications in the Sarawak (e.g. E-Recruitment, TaliKhidmat, E-Scholarship, E-Tani, E-Minds & SPay Global) have been integrated into it with more than 800,000 users.
The assembly heard Julaihi expressing the importance for Sarawak to have its own law providing legal recognition to the use of electronic means in government service delivery.
“With the passing of this Bill, the embracement of digitalisation in government service delivery will be made possible,” he added.
The Bill also seeks to allow the usage of digital or electronic signatures, electronic forms, electronic registrations, online payments and authorisations or receipts to be issued electronically.
It is in line with Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg’s aspiration for the state to secure its future as a modern and leading digital economy and society by 2030.
PCDS 2030 has identified digital transformation as one of the seven enablers which support the six economic sectors.
