By Peter Sibon & Ling Hui
KUCHING, Aug 14: Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg today hit out at his critics who say that “Abang Jo ngeluar air liur aja” (Abang Jo is all talk and no action).
He said as chief minister of Sarawak, he has to plan ahead, especially in terms of technology because he does not want Sarawak to be left behind in the digital era.
“As the chief minister of Sarawak, people may think that I am too ambitious, but that’s my job to make sure Sarawakians are not left behind in terms of technology which is the thing of the future,” he said when launching the first Sarawak Centexs-SDEC 5G test bed and Huawei Advanced Training Programme at Centexs here today.
He also outlined his policy for the next 10 years which will emphasise on infrastructure, road and bridges, followed by cyber infrastructure.
“Currently, our emphasis is to build roads and bridges. After that, we will put cables along the side of the road to implement 5G technology.
“Herewith I want to hit out at those who said that ‘Abang Jo ngeluar air liur aja’. What I’m trying to say is that we have to be practical and our emphasis should be to implement this 5G technology in urban areas first,” he said, adding that the implementation of technology will take time.
Moving forward, Abang Johari stated that Sarawak will be the country’s technological hub by 2030 or earlier as it has all the basic ingredients, such as reasonably priced power tariffs, resources and technology savvy talent.
“That is why we hope that by 2030 or earlier, Sarawak will become an IT hub whereby all the economic activities will be driven by IT technology.
“In this aspect, we also want to push local talents in ICT to be able to produce enough IT savvy workforce by 2030,” he said.
He also highlighted that with Sarawak’s extra income of the 5 per cent State Sales Tax (SST) from Petronas, the state will embark on greater cyber connectivity under the 12th Malaysia Plan.
“Under the 12th Malaysia Plan, we will allocate more money for digital economy so that we will be able to have the whole spectrum of economy to be technologically driven by 2030,” he said.
On the same issue, the chief minister stated that Sarawak was the first in the country to use mobile payment as proven during Movement Control Order (MCO) through the Sarawak Pay app.
“MCMC, SMA and SDEC will continue to collaborate as Sarawak will give greater emphasis on IT usage,” he said. —DayakDaily
