MIRI: Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg has urged timber industry players to leverage on technology in forest plantation development as well as to improve timber product diversification and utilisation.
He said that technology such as hyperspectral could be used to monitor the incidence of pest and disease in large plantations, mapping of soil type, volume prediction, among other things.
“I was made to understand that Forest Department Sarawak (FDS) is currently conducting a study using the hyperspectral remote sensing technology to detect early incidence of pest and diseases in forest plantation areas.
“Early detection could help in assessing the health of the plantations and for better management of plantation forests,” he said when officiating at an Industrial Forest Plantation seminar here today.
On the downstream industry, the chief minister said technological advancements could improve the processing of plantation logs to ensure optimum utilisation.
He also urged timber mill owners to retool for the smaller fast-growing plantation logs and to add value to the timber harvested.
According to Abang Johari, various tests had been conducted over the past years on planted timber such as acacia, batai, eucalyptus, and many others – either on their properties or the end products that could be developed from the planted timber.
“I would like to urge the industries together with government agencies like FDS and the Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) as well as local universities to intensify research and development (R&D) on product diversification,” he said.
He stressed that it was inadequate to just have a good plantation if the whole value chain was not looked into to have a clear idea of the end product.
“Marketing and promotion of timber and timber products are very important if we want to gain profit from the industry,” he said.
As such, he said agencies such as STIDC played a crucial role in facilitating the industrial forest industry in promoting and marketing planted timber products.
Acknowledging that the current circumstances made it difficult to organise physical trade missions, he pointed out that the online platform was available to market and promote timber products.
“We just have to be creative and innovative in leveraging on digital technologies,” he said, urging industry players to look into the use of Augmented Reality (AR).
Abang Johari said the state government was playing its part to upgrade Sarawak’s digital infrastructure which would facilitate the use of technology for marketing and promotion efforts.
