Software developers told to keep track of technology usage and IoT in the state

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Abang Johari (right) showing a book co-authored by Dr Jaap Gordijn (third right) from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Also seen is Kadim (second right) and others. Photo by Muhammad Rais Sanusi

 

KUCHING: Software developers are required to be aware and keep track of the rapid use of technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) in the state’s various industries.

Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg said software must be current and tailored to meet the needs of our local industries to spur the Sarawak Digital Economy Strategy 2018-2022.

Ever since taking office as the chief minister, Abang Johari said among the first steps he took was to transform the state’s economy towards digital.

“The reason is that we are living in a small population, but we have all the resources which we can connect to the (global) market,” said Abang Johari at the launch of the 11th Malaysian Software Engineering Conference (MySEC) 2018 held at a leading hotel here today.

Among the anchor sectors of the Sarawak Digital Economy are Agriculture, Manufacturing-Industry 4.0, Tourism, Smart City, Digital Health, e-Commerce and Digital Government.

With IoT, the state’s agriculture sector he said can be managed and connected to the global market while the service and tourism sectors can bring their promotional drive to another level.

“To promote tourism by using devices such as augmented reality, it will create anxiety or curiosity and attract tourist to come over and explore what Sarawak have to offer,” he added.

Other agencies or departments that are now shifting towards the usage of technology he said are the Sarawak Forest Department, using drones to monitor illegal logging activities, and the Sarawak Land and Survey Department which have set up their Land and Survey Information System (Lasis) for the public to obtain information on a specific piece of land.

“I have also requested Sarawak Energy to conduct studies on the usage of hydrogen technology making it appropriate (now) to develop a software to aid the process on how to separate the hydrogen and oxygen from the water molecule,” said Abang Johari.

Jointly organised by the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Unimas and the Malaysian Software Engineering Interest Group (MySEIG), the conference is held from Aug 7 to 9 with the theme ‘Transforming Society Through Sustainable Digital Economy’.

The conference has attracted more than 100 technical papers which brings together topics such as Software Process and Measurement, Software Approach, Application for Priority Sectors and Software Tools and Environment.