KUCHING, March 25: Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) has emerged the champion of the 10+3 (ASEAN + China, Japan and Republic of South Korea) Digital Economy Innovation Awards Competition with its Sarawak Smart City Operating System entry.
The award, which was presented during the 10+3 Digital Economy Innovation Forum 2021 last December 8, was handed over by SMA general manager Dr Zaidi Razak to Premier of Sarawak Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg, who is also SMA chairman, today.
The competition was organised by the China Academy of Information and Communication Technology and the Department of Industry and Information Technology of Yunnan Province, involving over 200 entries and 26 finalists from ASEAN countries.
SMA’s entry, the Sarawak Smart City Operating System, featured Sarawak’s past, present and future initiatives, especially those related to the Kuching Smart City Masterplan launched by Abang Johari on October 5, 2021.
Team leader Tan Chee Kang said such participation is a huge opportunity to promote Sarawak to the outside world, particularly to countries championing digitalisation.
“We want to showcase how Sarawak is indeed ready for digitalisation. Thus, a competition arena like this allows us to promote Sarawak to attract investments and digital partners for even greater digital innovations,” he said.
Meanwhile, Zaidi said such a prestigious award provided a great assurance on the various efforts undertaken by Sarawak in empowering digitalisation and the digital economy.
He said the achievement would allow SMA to better gel all the stakeholders in moving forward to achieve Sarawak’s aspiration to become a high income and developed State as enshrined in its digital economy agenda.
“The master plan’s initiatives are aligned with the Sarawak government’s Post Covid-19 Development Strategy (PCDS) 2030 initiatives and the State’s 12th Malaysia Plan objectives.
“It details how to make cities in Sarawak more liveable and prosperous with Smart Kuching as a model,” he said in a statement today.
While it is good to benchmark and look at what other countries have done, Zaidi said Sarawak needs to be bold in taking new steps forward, and with the achievement of the award, it is indeed a good assurance.
“The award reflects that the steps we have taken so far are on the right path, and the journey that we are on holds a bright future,” he said. — DayakDaily
