By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, June 20: The Sarawak government should review and improve its investment strategies to avoid missing out on the wave of global tech companies’ investment into South East Asia, said Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen.
According to Chong, the move is also necessary to prevent Sarawak from ‘losing out’ to other states in Peninsular Malaysia.
He went on to say that since last month, three tech titans have announced plans to invest in Malaysia, citing multiple sources.
“In May, 2024, Microsoft announced a US$2.2 billion investment to build cloud and AI infrastructure in Malaysia.
“On May 30, 2024, Google announced a US$2 billion investment in Malaysia to develop its data centre and Google Cloud region.
“In June, 2024, Tik-tok’s parent company announced that it will invest US$2.1 billion to make Malaysia a regional AI hub,” he said in a statement issued today.
Chong, who is also Stampin MP, continued: “All of these investments will be based in West Malaysia (particularly in Johor, Selangor, and Penang), and it seems that Sarawak is not on the radar of investment destinations of these multinational companies. Something is amiss.
“It is to be noted that the spin-off effect of these investments in the cloud and AI infrastructure will speed up the transformation of our economy from the conventional model to digital and AI driven.
“Sarawak cannot afford to be left out. Otherwise, we will continue to suffer the exodus of talents to West Malaysia, like what has happened over the past decades.”
He further noted that while Sarawak lacks an ecosystem for the high-tech industry and a logistical advantage, it does have an abundance of clean and cheap energy and land.
“The state government should capitalise on our strength to attract these high-tech investments into Sarawak, especially given that the industry is also energy-intensive and there is international emphasis on the need for clean energy in their production line.
“Yet, regrettably it seems that the Sarawak government is only happy with exporting our clean energy rather than using it to attract investments,” he claimed.
“We should not repeat our same mistake by merely exporting our raw clean energy but to use the advantage of this clean energy to develop our industries in Sarawak,” he asserted. — DayakDaily
