KUCHING, April 2: Ministry of Utility and Telecommunication Sarawak (MUT) has successfully organised its first Sarawak Utility and Telecommunication Conference 2022 (SUTC2022) with the theme ‘Challenges and The Way Forward by the year 2030’.
Attended by 280 delegates, the conference included 13 technical paper presentations from respective government agencies involved in utility and telecommunication implementation, an interactive workshop for delegate active participation and a forum comprising of six panellists from the telecommunication sector.
All these sessions in the conference provided the platform to comprehensively identify challenges, issues, and potential solutions to achieve full coverage of utilities and telecommunications in Sarawak by 2030.
MUT permanent secretary Dato Ir Alice Jawan, while wrapping up the conference yesterday (April 1), listed the challenges faced by MUT to achieve full coverage of utilities and telecommunication which includes wayleave and siting, accessibility and logistic limitation, inadequate space for laying of utilities, shortage of skilled manpower, vandalism, policies that need to be reviewed and the need for integrated utility data.
Thus, she said, a comprehensive and well-developed masterplan for the respective utilities and in coordination with another masterplan such as road connectivity, will facilitate improved project delivery.
Meanwhile, Minister for Utility and Telecommunication Sarawak Datuk Julaihi Narawi said Sarawak needs policies, guidelines and regulations that can also facilitate coordination and collaboration among all relevant government agencies and stakeholders.
He emphasized that respective masterplans for utilities can be integrated and converged so that they can be laid along common utility corridor with an entity managing it.
The utility corridor is a necessity to ensure our utilities development is systematic, effective and efficient, he added. — DayakDaily
