Abang Johari smiles as he poses next to a mascot of Transformers Autobots’ Bumblebee which made an appearance the Sime Darby booth at the IEW Exhibition. Also seen are (from left) Awang Tengah, Dr Sim and Masing. – Photos by Muhammad Rais Sanusi
Abang Johari listening to a briefing by Petronas executive Mohd Faris Ahmad (fourth right) during his visit to the national oil and gas company’s booth at the IEW Exhibition. Also with him are (from left) Dr Rundi, Masing and Awang Tengah.
SEB chief executive officer Sharbini Suhaili (right) briefing Abang Johari on SEB’s exhibit while Awang Tengah looks on.
KUCHING: Sarawak has a lot to offer the digital economy such as content development by young talents, digitisation of the market through the Internet and distribution hubs as well as the hosting of server farms as a result of the availability of energy resources.
With the energy industry spearheading the state into the future through the many recent technologies and advancements, Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg said the state aimed to be part of this digital transformation which would see its growth accelerated towards becoming a developed economy.
“As such, we will enhance our education system in developing talent among our youths and at the same time encourage the adopting of new ICT technologies and services including artificial intelligence (AI) and FinTech (financial technology),” he said in his keynote address during the opening ceremony of International Energy Week (IEW) 2018 at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) here yesterday.
He pointed out that the new technologies and services will bring about huge potential that will generate new businesses and services that will in turn provide high paying jobs for Sarawakians.
“We also welcome expatriates who wish to contribute to the development of our economy. We will look into our employment regulation to make it easier for professionals to come to Sarawak and work,” he said.
Abang Johari also touched on plans to place greater emphasis on downstream industries which will generate higher value-added services in the state’s economic activities.
“As Sarawak has a small population of only 2.7 million people, we do not have cheap labour. Instead, we are placing greater emphasis on higher value-added skills to work with capital-intensive industries.
“Furthermore, this is critically important if Sarawak is going to go anywhere in achieving high incomes for our people,” he remarked.
On IEW, Abang Johari said it provided a platform for the energy and infrastructure industry to come together to examine issues and address challenges and at the same time explore the many new business opportunities as everyone moved into the digital age.
“The future outlook of the energy sector will transcend beyond the boundaries of energy resources. IEW has grown in stature with encouraging response from both exhibitors and visitors.”
He added that the expo had also grown by 20 per cent, attracting exhibitors representing over 15 countries including India, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Malaysia and the United States.
After the launch of IEW, Abang Johari was taken on a tour of the expo’s exhibition which featured more than 80 exhibitors from the energy, petroleum and infrastructure industries such as Petronas, Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB), Sime Darby Industrial Sdn Bhd and more.
Among those present were Deputy Chief Ministers Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing and Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, Utilities Minister Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom, Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof, Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian, State Legislative Assembly (DUN) Speaker Datuk Amar Mohammad Asfia Awang Nassar, Deputy DUN Speaker Dato Gerawat Gala, State Secretary Tan Sri Datuk Amar Morshidi Abdul Ghani and Deputy State Secretary (Socio-Economic Transformation) Datu Mohamad Abu Bakar Marzuki, who is also IEW organising committee chairman.