KUCHING: Get familiar with technology and cyberspace because those are the directions that humans are going whether they go willingly or not.
Although nobody can tell for sure what will happen to human civilisation in future, but technological development is already where humans are going beyond what is known today.
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg spoke on these points during a press conference at Centexs-SMA Safari 2019 (Petra Jaya) at Penview Convention Centre (PCC) Demak here, yesterday.
The construction of the new Centexs campus in Mukah is scheduled for completion in 18 months.
Abang Johari said the state government established the infrastructure under the Sarawak Skills Development Centre (SSDC or PPKS) and it will be handed over to Centexs upon completion.
“We decided to upgrade this infrastructure and give it to Centexs because it is much more suitable with the technologies they developed,” he said.
Citing a book entitled “Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow” by Yuval Noah Harari, he mentioned that it talks about the future generation whose lifestyles would change with widespread use of technology. The book also looks at the possibility of advanced transportation which enables humans to travel to space.
“That is why the state government has implemented the digital economy towards which we are moving gradually by familiarising ourselves with technology as ‘enabler’ in our daily life,” he said.
Even though technology drives our betterment in the future, Abang Johari did not deny that it will also come with negative effects such as hacking.
Thus, he said, it is necessary to have hackers for ourselves to counter situations where “sometimes you need a thief to catch a thief”.
He went on to mention modernisation in agriculture with the application of the Internet of Things (IOT) and device-controlled operations as well as upgrading services industry by venturing into the use of Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR).
He added that people now are very lucky because they have everything accessible to them such as Google Maps and GPS navigation system to get to their destinations provided that they have the infrastructure.
“Following that, the state government is currently committed to upgrading our infrastructure including 5G Internet connectivity.
He hoped that by the year 2025 to 2030, Sarawak may have driverless buses run through the city as a way to enhance the traffic management system.
At the same event Abang Johari launched a new application called Sara X which acts as a platform for marketing business content based on a concept similar to “Grab”.
Amongst those present at the event were Centexs chairman Tan Sri Datuk Amar Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani; Centexs chief executive officer (CEO) Syeed Mohd Hussien Wan Abdul Rahman; Law, State-Federal Relations and Project Monitoring Assistant Minister Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali; Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Office (Islamic Affairs and Kuching North City Commission) Datuk Dr Abdul Rahman Junaidi; Deputy State Secretary Datuk Dr Sabariah Putit; Santubong MP Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar; Tupong assemblyman Fazzrudin Abdul Rahman and Demak Laut assemblyman Dr Hazland Abang Hipni.
