KUCHING: The Sarawak Land and Survey Department (JTS) excelled in the Public Service Innovation Awards (PSIA) category at the Malaysia Technology Expo (MTE) 2020 held at the World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur from February 20 to 22.
Three innovation projects contested by JTS at MTE 2020, namely Power4Fields — Portable Power Supply, Mobile Land and Survey Information System (Lasis), and Sarawak Virtual 3D City, respectively were awarded the highest achievement in PSIA — the gold medal.
The awards were presented by Chief Secretary to the Government Datuk Seri Mohd Zuki Ali during the Public Service Innovation Awards presentation ceremony.
The excellence of these three innovation projects also saw them as recipients of a Special Award related to innovation and creativity at the national and international level.
Mobile Lasis received a Special Award from the Malaysian Association of Creativity and Innovation (Macri), while the Sarawak Virtual 3D City project received the Special Award from the International Alliance of Innovation and Invention Associations.
Power4Fields was recognised as well and received a Special Award from the International Federation of Inventors’ Associations (Ifia).
JTS’ participation at MTE 2020 was with the strategic cooperation of Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA). Ten officers led by senior surveyor Ramzi Abdillah represented JTS to present the three innovation projects during the evaluation session at JTS’ exhibition site during MTE 2020.
Also present during the evaluation session were SMA general manager Dr Zaidi Razak and SMA Research and Development Unit head Dr Khairul Hafiz Sharkawi, along with officers from the State Service Modernisation Unit of the Sarawak Chief Minister’s Department.
MTE 2020 is a platform for innovation and creativity players to showcase their innovations to the public. This 19th exhibition involved 305 innovations from 150 participants consisting of public service organisations, production companies and technology firms, institutes of higher learning, researchers, and schools.
MTE 2020 also included participations from Croatia, Poland, the United Kingdom, Iran, Taiwan, and Indonesia. About 3,500 visitors were recorded on the first day of MTE 2020 and the number increased over the next two days.
For the PSIA category, 30 projects were presented and contested, involving 15 public service organisations.
Besides JTS’ projects, five more innovation projects from other organisations also received gold medals, ten received silver medals, and 12 received bronze medals.
JTS was the only land administration agency which took part in MTE 2020 with the commitment to continuously improve JTS services to the people, in addition to being a platform for sharing and forging networks with those from the innovation and creativity industries — be they local or international.
This participation also aimed to introduce innovation used by JTS in the public service, while at the same time promoting Sarawak State Public Service as a world class public service.