KUCHING: Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg says he would like to see Sarawak becomes a digital hub and be able to provide a fertile start –up environment, almost like a breeding ground for digital entrepreneurs.
“I believe Sarawak can become a leader in the development of digital economy and am confident that the International ICT Infrastructure and Digital Economic Conference Sarawak (IDECS) 2017 can provide the government with some basis to formulate policies to enable the state to move forward,” he said in his special address in the souvenir programme of the conference.
The two-day conference will start this Monday and ends on Tuesday at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) near here.
The conference has attracted more than 1,700 delegates, 20 renowned speakers and over 30 exhibitors on ICT and digital economy, coming from inside and outside of Malaysia such as from the United States of America, Korea, Sri Lanka, Australia, Japan, Brunei, Indonesia and Oman.
Abang Johari said the internet was rapidly transforming how goods and services were promoted and distributed, both domestically and internationally and so Sarawak’s economy needed to leapfrog from a traditional economy to one powered by internet connectivity in order to become a digital economy like other countries.
The Chief Minister added that internet access not only allowed businesses to offer a wide range of services to customers, but ability to reduce costs significantly by using cloud-based applications which the local business community should adapt to and adopt the digital technology.
Abang Johari said Sarawakians have to change in order to be able to embrace the changing world economic landscape.
“I am confident that the digital economy will create an entirely new dimension of growth for Sarawak”, he said.
He expressed the hope that the pursuit would create new job opportunities for the young people and transform the way they live and do business.
The Chief Minister said Sarawak was privileged because it was located just six hours from countries like China and India, which represented half of the world adding that he envisioned the local merchandise would be purchased overseas and delivered to customers’ doorsteps within hours.
He said now it was possible due to the advancement in transport and logistics and in a world where more and more goods were purchased online, Sarawakians entrepreneurs would then have access to a much larger markets outside its shores.
