By Nancy Nais
KUCHING, May 6: Re-greening Sarawak is part of the post Covid-19 economic exit plan where the Sarawak government will focus on creating revenue through sustainable forest management.
“Sarawak Government will focus on sustainable forest management through partnerships between government, businesses and the community. Among the key initiatives are aggressive industrial forest plantations, reforestation of degraded areas and international certification of our forest management practices.
“This effort will help preserve and conserve our forest for the future and generate revenue for Sarawak.
“This will also make Sarawak globally recognised as a contributor to the UN (United Nations) and Sustainable Development Goal’s (SDG) decarbonisation efforts,” said Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg at a press conference to unveil the Post Covid-19 Exit Economic Strategy Up to 2030 plan today.
In the agriculture sector, he said the focus would be on commercialisation and modernisation leveraging on the latest technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to intensify and improve productivity.
“New business model will be introduced increase productions and productivity. Increasing productivity in agriculture and commodity sector is key to this effort.
“New innovations especially precision farming with the application of Internet of Things (IoT) as well as latest research and development applications will be intensified,” he said.
The manufacturing sector, he said, will be transformed for more value-added and downstream processing activities especially in high tech such as electrical and electronics, heavy industries such as steel and aluminium as well as natural resources such as timber biodiversity and petrochemical.
He will also see that there will be more value-added or downstream activities for non-resource based downstream industries as well as capacity building for the small and medium enterprises.
Abang Johari who is also Finance and Economic Planning Minister highlighted the important of properly planned housing and an education that produces a talented, creative and tenacious workforce.
“We need new approaches in our key services sectors for the wellbeing of our people. For example, we need to introduce new housing policies to ensure healthy living.
“We need to develop new capabilities in healthcare sectors (in) post Covid-19 era.
“Our education system will build talented workforce that is agile and adaptive to the ever-changing landscape of industries in Sarawak. This is important for continuous innovation to sustain our economic growth,” said Abang Johari.
He said the other key sectors such as infrastructure, logistics, utilities, telecommunication, transport and welfare will be continued to support these key social and economic initiatives. —DayakDaily
