KUCHING: The World Engineering, Science and Technology Congress (ESTCON 2022) can help provide solutions for Sarawak in preserving and sustaining the environment and towards the use green energy in the future.
“It is in our state policy to go for environmental sustainability and also use green energy. That’s why we emphasise the use of hydropower, hydrogen and even biofuel,” said Minister for Education, Innovation and Talent Development Datuk Roland Sagah Wee Inn.
At the same time, he also said that the programme provided opportunities for experts as well as students here to explore solutions to the challenges in maintaining and sustaining the environment.
He said this when met by reporters after officiating at Universiti Teknologi Petronas’s (UTP) seventh edition of ESTCON 2022 at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) yesterday (Dec 1).
In addition, Sagah added the congress could help Sarawak achieve its goals in PCDS 2030.
In his speech, he revealed that the Sarawak Sustainability Blueprint would serve as a guide to all government agencies, businesses and communities in achieving desired Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“With this, we are committed to developing our state’s natural resources responsibly, with a focus on three sources of clean green energy — hydropower, solar energy and hydrogen.
“Our latest effort addresses concerns about conserving biodiversity and managing natural resources, along with mitigating and adapting to climate change,” he said.
Furthermore, Sarawak’s Growth Agenda also supported a resilient, sustainable energy foundation for common regional prosperity, added Sagah.
“As Malaysia’s largest renewable energy provider, we play a key role in accelerating the region’s energy transition by sharing our resources with our neighbours.
“Indeed, our power exports allow our state to be Southeast Asia’s centre of renewable energy. We will further implement environmental, social and governance (ESG) evaluation to keep Sarawak among global forerunners in these ambitions,” he said.
The two-day congress is attended by around 800 participants and delegates comprising academics, researchers, scientists, engineers, interest groups and industry experts from 17 countries with 500 papers to be presented.
Sagah also said that the state was looking for more collaborations with many quarters in producing more science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students.
“The state is looking forward to the future to increasing the STEM students to 60 per cent by 2030. Right now, we have 25 per cent of them.
“That is why we are encouraging students to join in teacher-student programmes to produce more STEM students.
“We are not only focusing on the oil and gas industry but everything related to STEM subjects and industry,” said the minister.
UTP vice chancellor and ESTCON chairman Profr Ts. Dr Mohamed Ibrahim Abdul Mutalib said this was the first time the programme is held in Sarawak.
“In a world that is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous or VUCA, UTP has progressively enhanced the building blocks for its future.
“Our focus is to achieve sustainable global prominence, hence to that end future-proofing the university is vital.
“This calls for the infusion of new developments in technology and digitalisation into the curriculum and in all of our research and innovation, whether it is data analytics or artificial intelligence and subjects related to energy, society and humanities,” said Mohamed Ibrahim.
He also hoped to witness a number of collaboration initiatives, especially with the Sarawak government in the near future.
