Plans underway to upgrade telco facilities at Samalaju Industrial Park, Bintulu

Ismawi (left) in the middle of the online meeting with telco authorities.

KUCHING, June 19: Plans are in the works to upgrade the telecommunication facilities at the Samalaju Industrial Park (SIP) in Bintulu within this year.

Regional Corridor Development Authority (Recoda) chief executive officer (CEO) Datu Ismawi Ismuni and his team received the news during yesterday (June 18)’s online meeting with several telecommunication authorities in Sarawak.

The news was announced by Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) director Adiman Ajem and Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) general manager Dr Zaidi Razak when they were in a discussion as to what was in store to speed up the internet at SIP.

The virtual engagement was initiated following the recent meeting between Recoda and industries in SIP which among others, raised the issue of the need for a faster broadband internet speed.

Ismawi expressed his hope that this telecommunication upgrade could be expedited to facilitate the industries within the industrial park.

“We are now in a new normal, where everything is dependent on internet connections,” he said during the online meeting.

Also joining the virtual meeting were representatives from telecommunication firms Sacofa, Telekom Malaysia, Digi Telecommunications, Maxis Communications, Celcom Axiata and U Mobile.

SIP, which is managed by Recoda, covers an area of 8,000ha dedicated to energy-intensive industries. The industrial park is about 60km away from Bintulu town.

Since its launch in 2008, SIP has been a hub for heavy and energy-intensive industries such as priority industries in steel, aluminium, glass as well as oil and gas. — DayakDaily