Sarawak may lose social capital: Asst Minister

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KUCHING: Sarawak might lose its social capital if nothing is done to effectively balance physical and virtual communication, according to state Communications Assistant Minister Datuk Lee Kim Shin.

He opined that social capital, loosely defined as a network of cooperation among people who live and work together to form a functional society, was being challenged by the increasing usage of information technology and applications.

“When we look into social transformation, there is a need to examine the effects of the growing usage of modern technology applications on our social capital,” he said.

He said this while opening the state-level Social Transformation Conference 2014 here today.

Lee said the state would be troubled by numerous social problems should measures taken to reach a balanced development fail.

“Getting people to come together to interact face to face is more important than through short message service (SMS) or all these virtual communication through social media,” he added. -Bernama