KUCHING: Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg has urged the civil service to utilise technology to enhance productivity and service delivery.
He said that the implementation of technology to connect various administrative levels of state, division and district would improve efficiency.
“With all these being connected through technology, they can exchange information and if there are any issues, they can bring it up to their senior officers so that they can look into it and find solutions,” he said during a webinar session titled ‘Post Covid-19: Sarawak The New Normal’ hosted by the Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC) on Tuesday.
For example, he said the state’s Land and Survey Department had their own application to ensure that all land issues are settled within two days or if possible, just one day for land title issuance.
“The Public Works Department (JKR) is also doing the same thing with their application JKRDash, which will enable the people, including senior officers as well as ministers, to look into the stage of implementation of projects which have been approved,” he said.
Furthermore, he said that the state government had implemented training programmes for civil servants, whereby they were sent to reequip themselves with modern knowledge and to be exposed to the new mode of managing a government as well as the importance of innovation.
With these efforts, Abang Johari said that the public sector would be able to complement the private sector better.
“Usually, the private sector is well exposed to such matters but if the public sector is not exposed as well, there will be a mismatch between the two. This will create further problems which have to be solved,” he explained.
Meanwhile, he said he was not concerned about job displacement caused by technology as new jobs would be created with the advancement of technology.
For instance, in terms of cybersecurity, he said that roles such as cyber engineer would arise to look into how to protect information.
“For mobile payment, the banking industry has to change from conventional banking to a new way of making payments. These are technologies that will create new jobs,” he said as another example.
Abang Johari emphasised that Sarawak and Malaysia as a whole would have to get prepared and understand technology and its potential in the new economic era.
The webinar session was moderated by MPC director-general Datuk Abdul Latif Abu Seman.
