KUCHING: Sarawak has no choice but to embark on the Smart City programme to provide better services to the people, said Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian.
He pointed out that several countries including Singapore, Japan, China and Taiwan have already implemented the concept which turned out to be a success.
“Through the smart city concept, local councils are required to work closely with local communities to implement the initiatives,” said Dr Sim at the ministry’s Smart Community Project Awards (AMKTP) 2019 and Awards for Excellent Service (APC) 2018 ceremony held a local hotel here yesterday.
Smart City is a designation given to a city that incorporates information and communication technologies (ICT) to enhance the quality and performance of urban services such as energy, transportation and utilities in order to reduce resource consumption, wastage and overall costs.
Dr Sim said local councils should send their personnel to China to learn more about the concept and acquire the implementation knowledge.
During the presentation of excellent awards, Dr Sim said the awards were presented not only to acknowledge the staffs’ contributions to the council or department they serve, but also to the state and the people.
A total of 276 employees from the ministry, Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID), Sewerage Service Department and 23 local councils received the Excellent Service Awards (APC) 2018. Of the total, the highest number was from DID with a total of 41 recipients, followed by Sibu Municipal Council (39 recipients), Miri City Council (35 recipients), Padawan Municipal Council (31 recipients) and 14 from the Ministry of Local Government and Housing.
The cash prize for the diamond recipient is worth RM10,000, while platinum is RM5,000, gold (RM7,000), silver (RM5,000) and bronze (RM3,000).
